Steve’s Blog

The Hunting of the Snark

By Lewis Carroll

Fit the First

The Landing

"Just the place for a Snark!" the Bellman cried,

As he landed his crew with care;

Supporting each man on the top of the tide

By a finger entwined in his hair.

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:

That alone should encourage the crew.

Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:

What I tell you three times is true."

The crew was complete: it included a Boots—

A maker of Bonnets and Hoods—

A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes—

And a Broker, to value their goods.

A Billiard-marker, whose skill was immense,

Might perhaps have won more than his share—

But a Banker, engaged at enormous expense,

Had the whole of their cash in his care.

There was also a Beaver, that paced on the deck,

Or would sit making lace in the bow:

And had often (the Bellman said) saved them from wreck,

Though none of the sailors knew how.

There was one who was famed for the number of things

He forgot when he entered the ship:

His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings,

And the clothes he had bought for the trip.

He had forty-two boxes, all carefully packed,

With his name painted clearly on each:

But, since he omitted to mention the fact,

They were all left behind on the beach.

The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because

He had seven coats on when he came,

With three pair of boots—but the worst of it was,

He had wholly forgotten his name.

He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry,

Such as "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!"

To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!"

But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!"

While, for those who preferred a more forcible word,

He had different names from these:

His intimate friends called him "Candle-ends,"

And his enemies "Toasted-cheese."

"His form is ungainly—his intellect small—"

(So the Bellman would often remark)

"But his courage is perfect! And that, after all,

Is the thing that one needs with a Snark."

He would joke with hænas, returning their stare

With an impudent wag of the head:

And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear,

"Just to keep up its spirits," he said.

He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late—

And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad—

He could only bake Bride-cake—for which, I may state,

No materials were to be had.

The last of the crew needs especial remark,

Though he looked an incredible dunce:

He had just one idea—but, that one being "Snark,"

The good Bellman engaged him at once.

He came as a Butcher: but gravely declared,

When the ship had been sailing a week,

He could only kill Beavers. The Bellman looked scared,

And was almost too frightened to speak:

But at length he explained, in a tremulous tone,

There was only one Beaver on board;

And that was a tame one he had of his own,

Whose death would be deeply deplored.

The Beaver, who happened to hear the remark,

Protested, with tears in its eyes,

That not even the rapture of hunting the Snark

Could atone for that dismal surprise!

It strongly advised that the Butcher should be

Conveyed in a separate ship:

But the Bellman declared that would never agree

With the plans he had made for the trip:

Navigation was always a difficult art,

Though with only one ship and one bell:

And he feared he must really decline, for his part,

Undertaking another as well.

The Beaver's best course was, no doubt, to procure

A second-hand dagger-proof coat—

So the Baker advised it—and next, to insure

Its life in some Office of note:

This the Banker suggested, and offered for hire

(On moderate terms), or for sale,

Two excellent Policies, one Against Fire,

And one Against Damage From Hail.

Yet still, ever after that sorrowful day,

Whenever the Butcher was by,

The Beaver kept looking the opposite way,

And appeared unaccountably shy.

Fit the Second

The Bellman's Speech

The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies—

Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!

Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,

The moment one looked in his face!

He had bought a large map representing the sea,

Without the least vestige of land:

And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be

A map they could all understand.

"What's the good of Mercator's North Poles and Equators,

Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?"

So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply

"They are merely conventional signs!

"Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!

But we've got our brave Captain to thank

(So the crew would protest) "that he's bought us the best—

A perfect and absolute blank!"

This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out

That the Captain they trusted so well

Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,

And that was to tingle his bell.

He was thoughtful and grave—but the orders he gave

Were enough to bewilder a crew.

When he cried "Steer to starboard, but keep her head larboard!"

What on earth was the helmsman to do?

Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes:

A thing, as the Bellman remarked,

That frequently happens in tropical climes,

When a vessel is, so to speak, "snarked."

But the principal failing occurred in the sailing,

And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed,

Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due East,

That the ship would not travel due West!

But the danger was past—they had landed at last,

With their boxes, portmanteaus, and bags:

Yet at first sight the crew were not pleased with the view,

Which consisted of chasms and crags.

The Bellman perceived that their spirits were low,

And repeated in musical tone

Some jokes he had kept for a season of woe—

But the crew would do nothing but groan.

He served out some grog with a liberal hand,

And bade them sit down on the beach:

And they could not but own that their Captain looked grand,

As he stood and delivered his speech.

"Friends, Romans, and countrymen, lend me your ears!"

(They were all of them fond of quotations:

So they drank to his health, and they gave him three cheers,

While he served out additional rations).

"We have sailed many months, we have sailed many weeks,

(Four weeks to the month you may mark),

But never as yet ('tis your Captain who speaks)

Have we caught the least glimpse of a Snark!

"We have sailed many weeks, we have sailed many days,

(Seven days to the week I allow),

But a Snark, on the which we might lovingly gaze,

We have never beheld till now!

"Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again

The five unmistakable marks

By which you may know, wheresoever you go,

The warranted genuine Snarks.

"Let us take them in order. The first is the taste,

Which is meagre and hollow, but crisp:

Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,

With a flavour of Will-o'-the-wisp.

"Its habit of getting up late you'll agree

That it carries too far, when I say

That it frequently breakfasts at five-o'clock tea,

And dines on the following day.

"The third is its slowness in taking a jest.

Should you happen to venture on one,

It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:

And it always looks grave at a pun.

"The fourth is its fondness for bathing-machines,

Which it constantly carries about,

And believes that they add to the beauty of scenes—

A sentiment open to doubt.

"The fifth is ambition. It next will be right

To describe each particular batch:

Distinguishing those that have feathers, and bite,

From those that have whiskers, and scratch.

"For, although common Snarks do no manner of harm,

Yet, I feel it my duty to say,

Some are Boojums—" The Bellman broke off in alarm,

For the Baker had fainted away.

Fit the Third

The Baker's Tale

They roused him with muffins—they roused him with ice—

They roused him with mustard and cress—

They roused him with jam and judicious advice—

They set him conundrums to guess.

When at length he sat up and was able to speak,

His sad story he offered to tell;

And the Bellman cried "Silence! Not even a shriek!"

And excitedly tingled his bell.

There was silence supreme! Not a shriek, not a scream,

Scarcely even a howl or a groan,

As the man they called "Ho!" told his story of woe

In an antediluvian tone.

"My father and mother were honest, though poor—"

"Skip all that!" cried the Bellman in haste.

"If it once becomes dark, there's no chance of a Snark—

We have hardly a minute to waste!"

"I skip forty years," said the Baker, in tears,

"And proceed without further remark

To the day when you took me aboard of your ship

To help you in hunting the Snark.

"A dear uncle of mine (after whom I was named)

Remarked, when I bade him farewell—"

"Oh, skip your dear uncle!" the Bellman exclaimed,

As he angrily tingled his bell.

"He remarked to me then," said that mildest of men,

"'If your Snark be a Snark, that is right:

Fetch it home by all means—you may serve it with greens,

And it's handy for striking a light.

"'You may seek it with thimbles—and seek it with care;

You may hunt it with forks and hope;

You may threaten its life with a railway-share;

You may charm it with smiles and soap—'"

("That's exactly the method," the Bellman bold

In a hasty parenthesis cried,

"That's exactly the way I have always been told

That the capture of Snarks should be tried!")

"'But oh, beamish nephew, beware of the day,

If your Snark be a Boojum! For then

You will softly and suddenly vanish away,

And never be met with again!'

"It is this, it is this that oppresses my soul,

When I think of my uncle's last words:

And my heart is like nothing so much as a bowl

Brimming over with quivering curds!

"It is this, it is this—" "We have had that before!"

The Bellman indignantly said.

And the Baker replied "Let me say it once more.

It is this, it is this that I dread!

"I engage with the Snark—every night after dark—

In a dreamy delirious fight:

I serve it with greens in those shadowy scenes,

And I use it for striking a light:

"But if ever I meet with a Boojum, that day,

In a moment (of this I am sure),

I shall softly and suddenly vanish away—

And the notion I cannot endure!"

Fit the Fourth

The Hunting

The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow.

"If only you'd spoken before!

It's excessively awkward to mention it now,

With the Snark, so to speak, at the door!

"We should all of us grieve, as you well may believe,

If you never were met with again—

But surely, my man, when the voyage began,

You might have suggested it then?

"It's excessively awkward to mention it now—

As I think I've already remarked."

And the man they called "Hi!" replied, with a sigh,

"I informed you the day we embarked.

"You may charge me with murder—or want of sense—

(We are all of us weak at times):

But the slightest approach to a false pretence

Was never among my crimes!

"I said it in Hebrew—I said it in Dutch—

I said it in German and Greek:

But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much)

That English is what you speak!"

"'Tis a pitiful tale," said the Bellman, whose face

Had grown longer at every word:

"But, now that you've stated the whole of your case,

More debate would be simply absurd.

"The rest of my speech" (he explained to his men)

"You shall hear when I've leisure to speak it.

But the Snark is at hand, let me tell you again!

'Tis your glorious duty to seek it!

"To seek it with thimbles, to seek it with care;

To pursue it with forks and hope;

To threaten its life with a railway-share;

To charm it with smiles and soap!

"For the Snark's a peculiar creature, that won't

Be caught in a commonplace way.

Do all that you know, and try all that you don't:

Not a chance must be wasted to-day!

"For England expects—I forbear to proceed:

'Tis a maxim tremendous, but trite:

And you'd best be unpacking the things that you need

To rig yourselves out for the fight."

Then the Banker endorsed a blank check (which he crossed),

And changed his loose silver for notes.

The Baker with care combed his whiskers and hair,

And shook the dust out of his coats.

The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade—

Each working the grindstone in turn:

But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed

No interest in the concern:

Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride,

And vainly proceeded to cite

A number of cases, in which making laces

Had been proved an infringement of right.

The maker of Bonnets ferociously planned

A novel arrangement of bows:

While the Billiard-marker with quivering hand

Was chalking the tip of his nose.

But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine,

With yellow kid gloves and a ruff—

Said he felt it exactly like going to dine,

Which the Bellman declared was all "stuff."

"Introduce me, now there's a good fellow," he said,

"If we happen to meet it together!"

And the Bellman, sagaciously nodding his head,

Said "That must depend on the weather."

The Beaver went simply galumphing about,

At seeing the Butcher so shy:

And even the Baker, though stupid and stout,

Made an effort to wink with one eye.

"Be a man!" said the Bellman in wrath, as he heard

The Butcher beginning to sob.

"Should we meet with a Jubjub, that desperate bird,

We shall need all our strength for the job!"

Fit the Fifth

The Beaver's Lesson

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;

They charmed it with smiles and soap.

Then the Butcher contrived an ingenious plan

For making a separate sally;

And had fixed on a spot unfrequented by man,

A dismal and desolate valley.

But the very same plan to the Beaver occurred:

It had chosen the very same place:

Yet neither betrayed, by a sign or a word,

The disgust that appeared in his face.

Each thought he was thinking of nothing but "Snark"

And the glorious work of the day;

And each tried to pretend that he did not remark

That the other was going that way.

But the valley grew narrow and narrower still,

And the evening got darker and colder,

Till (merely from nervousness, not from good will)

They marched along shoulder to shoulder.

Then a scream, shrill and high, rent the shuddering sky,

And they knew that some danger was near:

The Beaver turned pale to the tip of its tail,

And even the Butcher felt queer.

He thought of his childhood, left far far behind—

That blissful and innocent state—

The sound so exactly recalled to his mind

A pencil that squeaks on a slate!

"'Tis the voice of the Jubjub!" he suddenly cried.

(This man, that they used to call "Dunce.")

"As the Bellman would tell you," he added with pride,

"I have uttered that sentiment once.

"'Tis the note of the Jubjub! Keep count, I entreat;

You will find I have told it you twice.

Tis the song of the Jubjub! The proof is complete,

If only I've stated it thrice."

The Beaver had counted with scrupulous care,

Attending to every word:

But it fairly lost heart, and outgrabe in despair,

When the third repetition occurred.

It felt that, in spite of all possible pains,

It had somehow contrived to lose count,

And the only thing now was to rack its poor brains

By reckoning up the amount.

"Two added to one—if that could but be done,"

It said, "with one's fingers and thumbs!"

Recollecting with tears how, in earlier years,

It had taken no pains with its sums.

"The thing can be done," said the Butcher, "I think.

The thing must be done, I am sure.

The thing shall be done! Bring me paper and ink,

The best there is time to procure."

The Beaver brought paper, portfolio, pens,

And ink in unfailing supplies:

While strange creepy creatures came out of their dens,

And watched them with wondering eyes.

So engrossed was the Butcher, he heeded them not,

As he wrote with a pen in each hand,

And explained all the while in a popular style

Which the Beaver could well understand.

"Taking Three as the subject to reason about—

A convenient number to state—

We add Seven, and Ten, and then multiply out

By One Thousand diminished by Eight.

"The result we proceed to divide, as you see,

By Nine Hundred and Ninety and Two:

Then subtract Seventeen, and the answer must be

Exactly and perfectly true.

"The method employed I would gladly explain,

While I have it so clear in my head,

If I had but the time and you had but the brain—

But much yet remains to be said.

"In one moment I've seen what has hitherto been

Enveloped in absolute mystery,

And without extra charge I will give you at large

A Lesson in Natural History."

In his genial way he proceeded to say

(Forgetting all laws of propriety,

And that giving instruction, without introduction,

Would have caused quite a thrill in Society),

"As to temper the Jubjub's a desperate bird,

Since it lives in perpetual passion:

Its taste in costume is entirely absurd—

It is ages ahead of the fashion:

"But it knows any friend it has met once before:

It never will look at a bribe:

And in charity-meetings it stands at the door,

And collects—though it does not subscribe.

"Its flavour when cooked is more exquisite far

Than mutton, or oysters, or eggs:

(Some think it keeps best in an ivory jar,

And some, in mahogany kegs:)

"You boil it in sawdust: you salt it in glue:

You condense it with locusts and tape:

Still keeping one principal object in view—

To preserve its symmetrical shape."

The Butcher would gladly have talked till next day,

But he felt that the Lesson must end,

And he wept with delight in attempting to say

He considered the Beaver his friend.

While the Beaver confessed, with affectionate looks

More eloquent even than tears,

It had learned in ten minutes far more than all books

Would have taught it in seventy years.

They returned hand-in-hand, and the Bellman, unmanned

(For a moment) with noble emotion,

Said "This amply repays all the wearisome days

We have spent on the billowy ocean!"

Such friends, as the Beaver and Butcher became,

Have seldom if ever been known;

In winter or summer, 'twas always the same—

You could never meet either alone.

And when quarrels arose—as one frequently finds

Quarrels will, spite of every endeavour—

The song of the Jubjub recurred to their minds,

And cemented their friendship for ever!

Fit the Sixth

The Barrister's Dream

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;

They charmed it with smiles and soap.

But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain

That the Beaver's lace-making was wrong,

Fell asleep, and in dreams saw the creature quite plain

That his fancy had dwelt on so long.

He dreamed that he stood in a shadowy Court,

Where the Snark, with a glass in its eye,

Dressed in gown, bands, and wig, was defending a pig

On the charge of deserting its sty.

The Witnesses proved, without error or flaw,

That the sty was deserted when found:

And the Judge kept explaining the state of the law

In a soft under-current of sound.

The indictment had never been clearly expressed,

And it seemed that the Snark had begun,

And had spoken three hours, before any one guessed

What the pig was supposed to have done.

The Jury had each formed a different view

(Long before the indictment was read),

And they all spoke at once, so that none of them knew

One word that the others had said.

"You must know—" said the Judge: but the Snark exclaimed "Fudge!"

That statute is obsolete quite!

Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends

On an ancient manorial right.

"In the matter of Treason the pig would appear

To have aided, but scarcely abetted:

While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear,

If you grant the plea 'never indebted.'

"The fact of Desertion I will not dispute;

But its guilt, as I trust, is removed

(So far as relates to the costs of this suit)

By the Alibi which has been proved.

"My poor client's fate now depends on your votes."

Here the speaker sat down in his place,

And directed the Judge to refer to his notes

And briefly to sum up the case.

But the Judge said he never had summed up before;

So the Snark undertook it instead,

And summed it so well that it came to far more

Than the Witnesses ever had said!

When the verdict was called for, the Jury declined,

As the word was so puzzling to spell;

But they ventured to hope that the Snark wouldn't mind

Undertaking that duty as well.

So the Snark found the verdict, although, as it owned,

It was spent with the toils of the day:

When it said the word "GUILTY!" the Jury all groaned,

And some of them fainted away.

Then the Snark pronounced sentence, the Judge being quite

Too nervous to utter a word:

When it rose to its feet, there was silence like night,

And the fall of a pin might be heard.

"Transportation for life" was the sentence it gave,

"And then to be fined forty pound."

The Jury all cheered, though the Judge said he feared

That the phrase was not legally sound.

But their wild exultation was suddenly checked

When the jailer informed them, with tears,

Such a sentence would have not the slightest effect,

As the pig had been dead for some years.

The Judge left the Court, looking deeply disgusted:

But the Snark, though a little aghast,

As the lawyer to whom the defence was intrusted,

Went bellowing on to the last.

Thus the Barrister dreamed, while the bellowing seemed

To grow every moment more clear:

Till he woke to the knell of a furious bell,

Which the Bellman rang close at his ear.

Fit the Seventh

The Banker's Fate

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;

They charmed it with smiles and soap.

And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new

It was matter for general remark,

Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view

In his zeal to discover the Snark

But while he was seeking with thimbles and care,

A Bandersnatch swiftly drew nigh

And grabbed at the Banker, who shrieked in despair,

For he knew it was useless to fly.

He offered large discount—he offered a cheque

(Drawn "to bearer") for seven-pounds-ten:

But the Bandersnatch merely extended its neck

And grabbed at the Banker again.

Without rest or pause—while those frumious jaws

Went savagely snapping around—

He skipped and he hopped, and he floundered and flopped,

Till fainting he fell to the ground.

The Bandersnatch fled as the others appeared

Led on by that fear-stricken yell:

And the Bellman remarked "It is just as I feared!"

And solemnly tolled on his bell.

He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace

The least likeness to what he had been:

While so great was his fright that his waistcoat turned white—

A wonderful thing to be seen!

To the horror of all who were present that day,

He uprose in full evening dress,

And with senseless grimaces endeavoured to say

What his tongue could no longer express.

Down he sank in a chair—ran his hands through his hair—

And chanted in mimsiest tones

Words whose utter inanity proved his insanity,

While he rattled a couple of bones.

"Leave him here to his fate—it is getting so late!"

The Bellman exclaimed in a fright.

"We have lost half the day. Any further delay,

And we sha'n't catch a Snark before night!"

Fit the Eighth

The Vanishing

They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;

They pursued it with forks and hope;

They threatened its life with a railway-share;

They charmed it with smiles and soap.

They shuddered to think that the chase might fail,

And the Beaver, excited at last,

Went bounding along on the tip of its tail,

For the daylight was nearly past.

"There is Thingumbob shouting!" the Bellman said,

"He is shouting like mad, only hark!

He is waving his hands, he is wagging his head,

He has certainly found a Snark!"

They gazed in delight, while the Butcher exclaimed

"He was always a desperate wag!"

They beheld him—their Baker—their hero unnamed—

On the top of a neighbouring crag,

Erect and sublime, for one moment of time,

In the next, that wild figure they saw

(As if stung by a spasm) plunge into a chasm,

While they waited and listened in awe.

"It's a Snark!" was the sound that first came to their ears,

And seemed almost too good to be true.

Then followed a torrent of laughter and cheers:

Then the ominous words "It's a Boo—"

Then, silence. Some fancied they heard in the air

A weary and wandering sigh

That sounded like "-jum!" but the others declare

It was only a breeze that went by.

They hunted till darkness came on, but they found

Not a button, or feather, or mark,

By which they could tell that they stood on the ground

Where the Baker had met with the Snark.

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,

In the midst of his laughter and glee,

He had softly and suddenly vanished away—

For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

27/10/2020: The Bidens are toast. Biden Corruption: Trickle Of Information Becomes Flow Becomes Flood Becomes Avalanche: https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-10-23-biden-corruption-trickle-of-information-becomes-flow-becomes-flood-becomes-avalanche And now an anti-communist Chinese website is publishing Hunter Biden’s drug and sex tapes. God alone knows what they will post next: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/go-chinas-gtv-releases-videos-hunter-biden-sex-tapes-smoking-crack/ Or this: “Today, I went to a Trump rally” In Democrat Majority Greenwich, Ct. “I wanted to see one up close for myself...and it was an eye-opening experience” https://100percentfedup.com/today-i-went-to-a-trump-rally-in-democrat-majority-greenwich-ct-i-wanted-to-see-one-up-close-for-myself-and-it-was-an-eye-opening-experience/ For more on Biden’s links to the Chinese Communist Party: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/10/forget_the_hunter_biden_sex_tapes_the_real_news_is_much_bigger_than_that.html BTW: Facebook simply refused to post 2 out of 4 of these links!

26/10/2020: Trouble is, Ted Bailleu & Tony Abbott were so rare as recent politicians in Australia who took action to seriously rein in (rather than increase) debt, so that eg Vic’s finances were back in the black to the tune of a few hundreds of millions and Australia’s would have headed in the same direction. Yet, we dumped them. This is the lesson the pollies understood from this: Spend! It is why (eg) US & Oz debt continue to mushroom. Unfortunately there will be a day of reckoning for all this recklessness (note the derivation, ‘reck’ = ‘care’ OE). When the ability to pay finally runs out, we will have paid to breed a vast horde of utterly useless folk who can no longer be sustained – and we will refuse to continue hand-outs to them. We have 40%+ of the population today on some kind of ‘welfare’ or another. Who will ‘care’ for them then? What then will be the consequence?

26/10/2020: ‘There may be nothing to these allegations, even if one of Pell’s accusers bought a property worth nearly $500,000 just a month after one of the alleged payments’ but Vicpol refuses to investigate the movement of over a million dollars even though other police forces have already made arrests: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt-latest-twist-in-george-pell-witch-hunt-puts-victorian-authorities-in-firing-line/news-story/1511f7eb1471a7b69bf969885a1990cf

26/10/2020: Statistical analysis of 118 studies proves 'efficacy' of Hydroxychloroquine. Think of the lives that could have been saved if Dan and Anastacia hadn’t banned it. They should be indicted for murder. : https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6204459728001

25/10/2020: Total Precipitable Water and the Greenhouse Effect: As seen in the graph above, this article shows that declining humidity in the upper atmosphere fully offsets the greenhouse effect of increasing humidity in the lower atmosphere. Eliminating the water vapor feedbacks from climate models would reduce the multi-model mean equilibrium climate sensitivity from 3.2 °C to 1.7°C and would reduce the social cost of carbon dioxide calculated by the FUND economic model, with two updates, from 2018US$‑1.79/tCO2 to US$-7.14/tCO2at 3% discount rate. The negative signs indicate that climate change is beneficial. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/29/total-precipitable-water-and-the-greenhouse-effect/

25/10/2020: Assessing Risk:Folks are very bad at this and likely to become alarmed when they learn that the risk of something (plastic bottles?) causing death is 1/100th of 1% or the like…but the very moment you are born (even if you could expect to live 100 years) the risk of your dying is 100%. In any given year that chance is exactly 1% - though some years are worse than others…if the average age of death is 80, then the chance of your ding in any given year up to your 80thbirthday is 50% divided by 80 or .625%, but as 50% die after they are 80 then the chance of your dying in the next 20 years is 50% divided by 20 or 2.5%, but the vast majority of those over 80 die before their 90th birthday so that the real chance of dying between 80-90 is more like 50% divided by 10 (years) or 5% per year, ie 1 in 20 – consequentially about the same as your risk of dying of coronavirus at that age if you should contract it! No surprise, is it? Life is fraught with dangers, but we should not so blight the enjoyment of our lives as by overly dwelling on the danger. There is a sensible balance between risk and preparedness and a sensible costing. In the current so-called ‘pandemic’ we have horridly inflated the cost. We could never have afforded to spend $100,000 saving each and every life, mine included. There is just not enough money to do that. Our normal governments’ annual health budgets have always reflected that fact. Yet in the current ‘crisis’ we have spent upwards of 500 billion dollars in Australia (and rising) saving a purported 16,000 (elderly) lives, lives which would have been taken anyway as the above analysis of risk shows, a spend of over 30 million dollars per life, over 300 times what we would ‘normally’ think to be ‘too much’! We will literally never cease paying for this reckless and useless waste. And we have carelessly thrown so many freedoms away to do so as well! If our population was a static 25 million people then we could expect a little over 1% of them to die in any given year or 250,000 people, around the population of one of our smaller cities (Hobart or Newcastle for example – or around two Hiroshimas per year)! Sounds awful doesn’t it? But it is just normal! Could we have ‘saved’ those supposed 16,000 lives – 6% of the total, or would they have just died from something else? The normal chance of death in a lifetime is 100% after all. No country has experienced an excess death rate from this virus. Indeed in Australia the death rate has decreased slightly, but clearly this is not a permanent situation!

24/10/2020: The Importance of Blasphemy – an important essay. It is one thiong to have the ‘freedom to believe’ but it is more important to have the freedom not to believe, to instead base one’s life on facts and evidence rather than on some medieval (or even more archaic) shibboleth or dogma. As the third wave in Melbourne shows we are at great danger from the failure of a significant religious group (moslems) to identify as Australians first (and do the right thing); even more the murder of Samuel Paty in France illustrates the dangers presented by this extremist group in our society: https://quillette.com/2020/10/21/the-importance-of-blasphemy/

24/10/2020: Sooner or later we are going to have to live with the virus. All that has been done to date only delays that day. Any vaccine will only prevent a percentage of cases anyway, perhaps 2/3. If cheap freely available drugs such as Vitamin D, Zinc, Hydroxychloroquine and Ivomec were marshaled against it (as well as more serious efforts made to protect the elderly) 80%+ of deaths could be prevented as well. The ‘so-called second-wave in Europe and etc is enormously less deadly (probably mostly because thse who were going to die from it already have): http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/where-are-the-deaths-ten-reasons-the-first-and-second-covid-waves-look-so-different/ And it really was a huge protest yesterday in Melbourne against the lockdown: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/huge-protest-today-in-melbourne-against-the-andrews-government.html

24/10/2020: Biden is unfit for any office which does not have bars on the windows. His son’s laptop is a stunning record of infamy: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/biden-crime-family-comes-undone-daniel-greenfield/ During the debate he assured the audience that he had never expressed opposition to fracking, but here he is opposing it multiple times: https://twitter.com/i/status/1319466667676749824 and Bobulinski’s evidence of Joe profiting hugely from corrupt deals with China will bring his campaign to an end: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/damning-statement-from-tony-bobulinski-ceo-of-bidenchina-entity.html

23/10/2020: Poverty/Disadvantage - This supposed connection is highly spurious: As a child I grew up in what could only be described as a ‘poor’ family. We had no running water or electricity, no heating, no sewerage or septic tank, no ‘family’ car, no television, no ‘made’ road, adequate but (likely) protein poor diet, no ‘holidays’, very few toys, no ‘treats’, second-hand/repaired/home-made clothing, (I personally wore no shoes until I was in High School), haircuts performed at home, we grew most of our own food (so nothing out of season); we all suffered from boils (Vitamin deficiency or inadequate washing facilities?)…the list goes on. We never felt ANY sense of disadvantage. Certainly there was nothing about this situation which prevented us from excelling. Both my parents were quite literate, had beautiful flawless copperplate handwriting and were well informed about world events and the progress of ideas. ‘The Poor’ today are rich beyond my parents’ dreams of avarice (not that they had them anyway), their homes and lives crammed with sci-fi gadgets and robots beyond imagining, their stomachs full of a cornucopia of overly nutritious goodies…their minds and spirits are unbelievably vacuous however, and they are unable to do anything. For example, I recently posted some advice about fire lighting on a hiking website only to receive the comment that ‘fire-lighting’ was not in someone’s skill-set, so they would stick to ‘reliable’ gas stoves. Similarly posts about wonderful DIY hiking gear which is virtually free and better than anything you can buy for hundreds of dollars are the least-visited posts on my webpage (eg https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/10/21/tent-stove-progress/ ) ‘Disadvantage’ is all in the mind.

23/10/2020: OMG: It just gets worse and worse for the Bidens: Confirmed Footage Of Hunter Biden Raping And Torturing Little Chinese Girls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkxLQyuCUtM&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR0CxAyt8vMSBFQ7Or59HyG9qVr5V7Z9gqFfZiLu1t2e5NuyW8ukasxn2mE Of course the ‘fake news’ eg the Washington Post is running a front page about Biden’s dietary preferences: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/10/how-washington-post-is-keeping-up-with.html#more when a Biden insider whistleblower confirms he witnessed Joe involved in Hunter’s ‘business’ deals: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/breaking-whistleblower-releases-statement-personally-witnessed-former-vp-joe-biden-involved-deals-hunter-biden/

23/10/2020: In 1917 Australia Post delivered letters far more quickly (even to remote areas by horseback) than they do today – and without Cartier watches: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/memories-from-when-australia-post-delivered-by-horseback-lest-we-forget.html

22/10/2020: So many ‘problems’ arise because many people are ‘orally fixated’ instead of auditorally. Their problems arise from what they choose to put in their mouths and have come out of them. If they paid more attention to their ears (eg listen to good advice) their problems would disappear. Surely more than enough money has already been spent on brochures and education programmes explaining eg why smoking is bad for you, how to avoid diabetes, drugs are bad, exercise is good, etc? I add advice about not spouting angry vile stupidities out of them, blaming others, one’s own ‘disadvantage, etc. The individual alone is responsible for one’s own situation. No-one else is. No-one else is able to lift you out of a bad situation either. If you don’t ‘pull yourself up by your own bootstraps’ no-one else will or can! ‘Victims’ (and perpetrators) of domestic violence, the ‘diabetes epidemic’, aboriginal ‘disadvantage’, poverty, homelessness…they are all the individual’s fault. The ‘victims’ alone can help themselves. Not a cent of public money should be spent on such ‘social problems’. People must take responsibility for themselves. For example, if people are on ‘welfare’, unemployed and unemployable, morbidly obese, diabetic, illiterate, smokers, drinkers, drug addicts, neither grow nor consume fresh fruit/vegetables, attempt to subsist alone on junk food (proven how many times to kill lab rats?), it is their own fault, their own problem. The sooner they either lift themselves up or are gone from the planet, the better.

22/10/2020: At CO2 roughly 50% up from supposed pre-industrial levels (ie 280 to 420 ppm) we should see roughly half the warming we should see roughly half the warming (if the forcing was linear – it is rather less than lineal) but there is no evidence that temperatures today are any different (subtracting ‘normal’ natural variations - as if you can) than they were in say the mid C19th when (eg in Oz) we recorded the hottest temperatures we ever have! If the first half of the doubling has produced close to zero warming then the second half of the doubling can only produce less than that in fact – which is a cooling! Don’t fret. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/20/crisis-looms-in-alarmist-climate-science/

22/10/2020: When ‘science’ follows the left. This is just an example from the issue of vaping which surely is at least less dangerous than tobacco smoking (which is legal) and ought therefore to be allowed as a more ‘healthy’ alternative for would-be smokers (which I am not), but that does not fit the left’s agenda and unfortunately here the Libs follow the Left down every rat-hole they create, so that there is no alternative. So, we have had bans and changes to many previously congenial things: decimal currency, the imperial system, crackers, drinking, drink driving, smoking, traditional marriage, the place of Christianity in society, homosexuality and pedophilia, climate, forest management, gun ownership, hunting and fishing…if you give an inch they will take a mile (not sure what that is in decimals)! https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/10/when-science-follows-the-left.php

21/10/2020: Even plants have rudimentary intelligence and memory: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-venus-flytraps-store-short-term-memories-prey/amp?__twitter_impression=true

21/10/2020: Covid was deliberately created and released by the communist Chinese Government. No doubt this was a response to the USA’s tough trade negotiations. They are now talking of banning our coal. Tough times ahead: https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6199980419001 & https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6191230400001 Unfortunately people often have lingering serious symptoms: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/covid-brain-fog-the-survivors-who-forget-whole-holidays-cant-recognise-their-own-car/ More interesting developments here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/16/backstory-origins-of-the-covid-19-virus/ & https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/19/what-sage-has-got-wrong/ At least there is hope that it will all be over very soon: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/pfizer-video-sparks-hope-covid19-vaccine-could-be-ready-by-december/news-story/83e8daef7e06b4799dbb1a6b1afed88e

21/10/2020: This Biden corruption thing is just so big. Even the FBI is complicit in the cover-up as well as nearly all of the Press and media (and of course our own ABC). It makes ‘conspiracy theories’ of all sorts more attractive as there seems to be no way forward for ‘truth’ except a prayed-for Trump victory, and maybe a bit more ‘swamp draining’. I am just astonished they have not assassinated him! They may yet. Unfortunately there are many parallels in Australia: the Labor Party’s links to China and the corrupt ‘Clinton Foundation’ spring to mind, as does the recent Pell money trail but I am not specially enamoured of the Libs either. Where is our own Aussie Trump: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/its-a-scandal-that-mainstream-media-is-ignoring-this-us-senate-homeland-security-report-on-biden-cor.html & http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/one-minute-we-were-america-then-next-we-were-china/

20/10/2020: Tent Stove Progress: I took a break from tree planting this morning to have a play with this prototype stove (and to try out my chimney). I have made this one out of two (6" dia 2' high - 15 x 5 cm) stainless steel bird feeding bowls from the local $2 store. They weighed 78 grams each.

I have joined them together with the simple expedient of drilling three holes around the rims and pushing a piece of wire through the holes and into the ground. Tent pegs would work better and would secure the stove very safely in the vestibule of the tent. The collar thing I am using for a fuel guide tube is just a $2 plumbing fitting from Bunnings. I will come up with something better/lighter.

The chimney is just sitting in the hole I drilled with the Lenox hole saw at the moment. The twigs you see in it are 1/2" to 3/4" (12-19 mm). These are easily broken over your knee and can be split (carefully by pushing a fixed blade knife through them to get at the dry heartwood. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/10/20/tent-stove-progress/

20/10/2020:

20/10/2020: Glaciers around the world reached their greatest size in four thousand years by 1850. Then abruptly the world began to warm. Arctic sea ice lost 40% of its thickness by 1940… the dramatic warming was due to an increased transfer of heat through the atmosphere by a strengthening of the winds carrying heat from southern parts to the Arctic: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/13/greenland-and-the-1950s-climate-consensus/

20/10/2020: The real death toll from Covid though is pretty much the same as the 2017-8 flu season: https://nypost.com/2020/10/17/how-the-media-is-misreporting-covid-19s-death-toll-in-america/

20/10/2020: You just can’t buy crowds like this; thousands of people line the streets of Newport California (the pre-eminently ‘solid’ Democrat state, and Harris’ home town) to welcome President Trump – yet the ‘fake news’ claims he can’t win. This is middle America: https://www.breitbart.com/2020-election/2020/10/19/watch-thousands-upon-thousands-line-streets-to-welcome-president-to-california/ This is what a Joe Biden rally looks like: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/19/excitement-machine/ Poor old Joe just can’t talk and chew gum at the same time: https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-uses-giant-teleprompter-at-yet-another-sparsely-attended-rallies

19/10/2020: A good news story for Australians: Cardinal Pell celebrates his first mass in Rome since 2017 on the tenth anniversary of Mary McKillop’s canonisation: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/cardinal-pell-celebrates-first-mass-in-rome-since-returning-with-tony-abbott-in-congregation.html

19/10/2020: Willis’s cartoons of Mohammed are the best. I think even the good prophet would have a laugh at them: https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/18/cartoon-bob-interviews-the-prophet/

19/10/2020: Indications of a good Trump win are growing, thank goodness. There is no-one else out there who stands for the mainstream, for the traditional values of the middle ground: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/joe-bidens-popularity-wanes-amid-hunter-biden-rehab-and-foreign-interests-email-scandal/news-story/bd7d6e872facf99032f7261956db56a7 The graphic shows how emeritus political scientist Helmut Norpoth’s model predicts the result. He has been right 25/27 times (You have to hope he is right):

https://news.stonybrook.edu/facultystaff/maverick-modeller-helmut-norpoth-predicts-another-win-for-trump/

18/10/2020: My First Ultralight Chimney: I am slowly working my way through the many issues involved in constructing ultralight wood burning stoves for tent heating, cooking and electricity generation. This will take some time. The most important first step however involved whether I could construct an ultralight roll-up chimney without having to be able to weld such lighteweight metal foil materials. This is my fist attempt and though it was a success I am not completely unwounded (neither is Della) and we have learned much. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/10/18/my-first-ultralight-chimney/

18/10/2020: Meanwhile more fraud about dangers to the Reef which has moved about quite a lot over the last 20,000 years anyway as sea level see-sawed during glaciation events. Imagine how far out to sea (or non-existent) it must have been when you could walk to Tasmnania only 15,000 years ago. It is the nature of coral reefs that they occur in shallow seas. If sea level was 50 or more metres lower (as it was) then they did not exist anywhere near their present locales: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/half-the-reef-destroyed-but-they-wont-release-the-data/ & https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/15/half-the-corals-dead-but-not-in-real-life/

18/10/2020: Seems like Mars’ oceans have gone underground with up to a third covered by subterranean ice sheets: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/16/cliffs-in-ancient-ice-on-mars/

18/10/2020: ‘After the game, the pawn and the king go in the same box.’ Roger de Hauteville

17/10/2020: A lesson from the life of Geoffrey Chaucer who (barely) lived through some interesting parliaments (the ‘Merciless’ and the ‘Wonderful’ for example): http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspot.com/2020/10/chaucers-near-execution.html

17/10/2020: Will China soon split into seven nations? https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/10/china-faces-historical-turning-point-michael-ledeen/

17/10/2020: Fatherlessness. Probably the greatest threat to a civilised society, ‘As a first-year obstetrical resident, I delivered 150 babies in three months. Only one of the mothers was married. Most of these girls were 11 years old…’ https://pjmedia.com/columns/larry-elder/2020/10/15/fatherless-households-a-national-crisis-n1056125

16/10/2020: What Our Children Learn in School: ‘Our public schools are run, for the most part, by liberal administrators, and teachers are drawn, usually, from the lowest quadrant of academic ability among college graduates. There are exceptions, of course, but the overall level of instruction in the public schools is abysmal. And that isn’t the worst of it: teachers who are marginally able, at best, to teach the subjects for which they are nominally responsible often devote themselves to political indoctrination instead’ Listen: (This is a Yr 9 Geography class) https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/10/what-our-children-learn-in-school.php

16/10/2020: Biden is a crook. Hopefully this will bring him down: https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad/?fbclid=IwAR2Rw8-jGAY3gPLLI6n_j2vAcq4TFSTs0_03oTw3lzSmw8DnoLkYMmYO6Rk# Zuckerburg is trying hard to shut down this story and has thrown $400 million dollars against Trump. If Trump id re-elected that power will be emasculated, as it should be. Powerful people should not be able to shut down free speech. Nonetheless the story grows and grows: https://spectator.us/hunter-biden-ukraine-burisma-election-2020/ & https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/10/15/senate-judiciary-committee-will-subpoena-twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-over-ny-post-censorship/ & https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6200811085001

16/10/2020: Has to be true I think: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/14/nolte-study-signs-tell-us-polls-might-be-missing-hidden-trump-voters/

15/10/2020: Sad: Green Dreams Fulfilled: Around 10:00 am this morning the house shook to what we thought at first was an earthquake but it proved to be Engie blowing up one of the dredgers at the Hazelwood mine (about five kilometers away). There is now no way electricity production can be restarted quickly or cheaply at the Hazelwood Power Station ste though it could have been replaced by a modern coal plant which produced 70% less CO2 for a couple of billion – probably around the cost of the decommissioning! And you could have had electricity once more at under 20 cents per kilowatt hour! A whole new complex will have to be built when the country finally comes to its senses and realizes that we cannot have renewable electricity – it is just a ridiculous and impossible expensive extravaganza. If you want a carbon free future (no particularly good reason why you would but) Nuclear Yes. Renewables No. So sad to see it die: https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=5zUK5HSWDv8&fbclid=IwAR0x9HI4eFK-Fu3dBgVc-PlZFjkUd1yHZAzb7V62Bb9QP79ZOSwo66rd_2Q

15/10/2020: The UN is quite mad. Even its own data puts the lie to its own propaganda: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/peak-climate-religion-un-says-earth-to-become-uninhabitable-hell/ NASA Expects Global Cooling – you’d think this would be headline news: https://finance.townhall.com/columnists/mikeshedlock/2019/01/30/amidst-global-warming-hysteria-nasa-expects-global-cooling-n2540500? And in California the NOAA admits the same (so wildfires there cannot be laid to ‘global warming’): https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/09/noaa-confirm-heatwaves-are-declining-in-california/

15/10/2020: ‘Emergencies have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have eroded’. Friedrich Hayek. The science is settled: lockdown supporters are self-interested lunatics and anti-science denialists: https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/coronavirus-who-backflips-on-virus-stance-by-condemning-lockdowns/news-story/f2188f2aebff1b7b291b297731c3da74#.7daqw Listen to the experts: The centre for disease Control (US) First Said Not to Wear Masks, Then to Wear Masks, Then Masks Were Better than Vaccines – Now New Evidence Shows Masks Are Ineffective: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/cdc-first-said-not-wear-masks-wear-masks-masks-better-vaccines-now-new-evidence-shows-masks-dont-work/

15/10/2020: Do people really want ‘political correctness’: https://www.city-journal.org/cultural-revolution A great essay. ‘Over the past 20 years, virtually all the most progressive large states—New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California—have suffered massive outmigration, while red or purplish states like Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, or Arizona welcome more and more Americans to resettle there.’ This makes those states more ‘marginal’ politically, but it also focuses the campaign challenges. ‘It’s up to Americans everywhere, regardless of their party registration, to put a halt to a cultural revolution that our children may otherwise inherit.’

14/10/2020: Joe is such a hit. This video should prove popular: https://twitter.com/i/status/1313983383198863360 In contrast to that we have this: Signs That Trump Isn’t Going to Win on Nov. 3: https://townhall.com/columnists/kevinmccullough/2020/10/11/signs-that-trump-isnt-going-to-win-on-nov-3-n2577841

14/10/2020: The Covid Zone:

14/10/2020: Secrets of human happiness #2: Start following Brietbart and Sky instead of the ‘fake news’, ie: https://www.breitbart.com/# & https://www.skynews.com.au/ & https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/ & https://www.foxnews.com/category/world/world-regions/australia

13/10/2020: Now folks pray to the Government to save them. This is what they used to do: (from) The Book of Common Prayer, ‘O most powerful and glorious Lord God, at whose command the winds blow, and lift up the waves of the sea, and who stillest the rage thereof; We, thy creatures, but miserable sinners, do in this our great distress cry unto thee for help; Save, Lord, or else we perish’. Frankly, even as an atheist I do not find prayers to ‘almighty government’ to be an improvement.

13/10/2020: What’s not to like? So many here would vote for a party/individual who promised this platform (especially when in his first term he kept all his promises - and then some) unlike every politician in history. Go Donald:

Here is the full list:

JOBS

Create 10 Million New Jobs in 10 Months
Create 1 Million New Small Businesses
Cut Taxes to Boost Take-Home Pay and Keep Jobs in America
Enact Fair Trade Deals that Protect American Jobs
“Made in America” Tax Credits
Expand Opportunity Zones
Continue Deregulatory Agenda for Energy Independence

ERADICATE COVID-19

Develop a Vaccine by The End Of 2020
Return to Normal in 2021
Make All Critical Medicines and Supplies for Healthcare Workers in The United States
Refill Stockpiles and Prepare for Future Pandemics

END OUR RELIANCE ON CHINA

Bring Back 1 Million Manufacturing Jobs from China
Tax Credits for Companies that Bring Back Jobs from China
Allow 100% Expensing Deductions for Essential Industries like Pharmaceuticals and Robotics who Bring Back their Manufacturing to the United States
No Federal Contracts for Companies who Outsource to China
Hold China Fully Accountable for Allowing the Virus to Spread around the World

HEALTHCARE

Cut Prescription Drug Prices
Put Patients and Doctors Back in Charge of our Healthcare System
Lower Healthcare Insurance Premiums
End Surprise Billing
Cover All Pre-Existing Conditions
Protect Social Security and Medicare
Protect Our Veterans and Provide World-Class Healthcare and Services

EDUCATION

Provide School Choice to Every Child in America
Teach American Exceptionalism

DRAIN THE SWAMP

Pass Congressional Term Limits
End Bureaucratic Government Bullying of U.S. Citizens and Small Businesses
Expose Washington’s Money Trail and Delegate Powers Back to People and States
Drain the Globalist Swamp by Taking on International Organizations That Hurt American Citizens

DEFEND OUR POLICE

Fully Fund and Hire More Police and Law Enforcement Officers
Increase Criminal Penalties for Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers
Prosecute Drive-By Shootings as Acts of Domestic Terrorism
Bring Violent Extremist Groups Like ANTIFA to Justice
End Cashless Bail and Keep Dangerous Criminals Locked Up until Trial

END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS

Block Illegal Immigrants from Becoming Eligible for Taxpayer-Funded Welfare, Healthcare, and Free College Tuition
Mandatory Deportation for Non-Citizen Gang Members
Dismantle Human Trafficking Networks
End Sanctuary Cities to Restore our Neighborhoods and Protect our Families
Prohibit American Companies from Replacing United States Citizens with Lower-Cost Foreign Workers
Require New Immigrants to Be Able to Support Themselves Financially

INNOVATE FOR THE FUTURE

Launch Space Force, Establish Permanent Manned Presence on The Moon and Send the First Manned Mission to Mars
Build the World’s Greatest Infrastructure System
Win the Race to 5G and Establish a National High-Speed Wireless Internet Network
Continue to Lead the World in Access to the Cleanest Drinking Water and Cleanest Air
Partner with Other Nations to Clean Up our Planet’s Oceans

AMERICA FIRST FOREIGN POLICY

Stop Endless Wars and Bring Our Troops Home
Get Allies to Pay their Fair Share
Maintain and Expand America’s Unrivaled Military Strength
Wipe Out Global Terrorists Who Threaten to Harm Americans
Build a Great Cybersecurity Defense System and Missile Defense System
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/24/donald-trump-releases-second-term-agenda/

These people are working hard for a Trump victory: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/11/rioters-topple-abraham-lincoln-teddy-roosevelt-statues-in-portland-museum-windows-smashed/

12/10/2020:

12/10/2020: An interesting chart. I can’t wait to see the 2020 bounce when Trump wins. It seems to me that the stock market is currently factoring in his winning. It will obviously crash (as it did when Obama won) if he loses. https://www.predictit.org/markets/13/Prez-Election

12/10/2020: I have this problem too (for ‘New Yorker’ substitute (preferred) group: ‘I find the average New Yorker so breathtakingly ill-informed, I prefer to converse with animals, or even trees’: https://www.takimag.com/article/goodbye-cows/

12/10/2020: What a loss Adam Lindsay Gordon’s death was. Our greatest ever poet, almost forgotten today: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/09/the-poetry-of-adam-lindsay-gordon/

11/10/2020: New Tent Pegs: I tend to buy a lot of tent pegs because I am always making new tents/tarps and I like to have them all complete against need. I have found Aliexpress to be a good source (if you can wait for delivery). The 'Tito' brand there is quite satisfactory, for example.

I favour a Shepherd's hook shape for most of my tent pegs in titanium (for lightness) and around 6" long for most uses. The plain ones are usually the cheapest/lightest but a bit of colour on them does help to prevent their loss. Of curse you can always dip the heads in some paint and wait for them to dry.

It is a good idea to always put pegs in the ground and take them out in the same order (placing them immediately in a pocket/bag) and to always count them as you do. Always go over the last night's camp-site with a fine toothed comb before you quit it as there is often some small item you missed/forgot - such as a tent peg.

There is a right (and many wrong) way/s to 'plant' tent stakes. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/10/11/new-tent-pegs/

11/10/2020: Today's garden highlights: Leeks are now into the harvest phase and tonight's asparagus pick was ample. We did justice to both in tonight's tea of an omelette with leek, garlic, asparagus, ham and cheese. The lilac is a special triumph for me. I planted it about 7? years ago and have been disappointed by it's refusal to flower. Last spring I decided that it must need more light, and so persuaded Steve to do a bit of chain-sawing in the canopy behind it. No flowers that spring, but autumn saw a few experimental first flowers which blew me away as it was totally unseasonal. Obviously it was a trial run, because...voila!!!! The only downside? Lilacs have the most delicious scent, but somewhere between this shrub's planting and flowering I have lost most of my sense of smell (not Covid-related) - so that little pleasure is one that I will never enjoy. Not complaining though, as their visual beauty is quite enough!

11/10/2020: Meanwhile, Nuclear Fusion Energy Could Be Closer Than Thought – let’s hope so: https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/mit-scientists-nuclear-fusion-energy-could-be-closer-thought

11/10/2020: Senate investigation reveals Hunter Biden was a crooked as Trump alleged and Joe was deep in it – as with the Russiagate hoax. These Dems are just so blatantly rotten no honest person can vote for them: https://aclj.org/government-corruption/senate-report-reveals-hunter-bidens-profiteering-during-the-obama-biden-administration-went-further-than-previously-thought Expect this to ‘hit the fan’ big time (if it were not for the ‘fake news’): https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/president-trump-declassifies-all-documents-re-clinton-email-abc-4-corners-russia-hoax-scandals.html New film ‘Trump Card’ exposing how crooked the dems are should be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK4OGh6HOzc&feature=emb_title

11/10/2020: Over 6,000 Doctors, Public Health Professionals Sign ‘Great Barrington Declaration’, Urging End to COVID-Restrictions: https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/10/over-4000-doctors-public-health-professionals-sign-great-barrington-declaration-urging-end-to-covid-restrictions/ & https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/bbc-reports-on-global-anti-lockdown-movement-health-experts-hold-grave-concerns-over-lockdown-harm.html Interesting: Stats Hold a Surprise: Lockdowns May Have Had Little Effect on COVID-19 Spread: https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/stats-hold-a-surprise-lockdowns-may-have-had-little-effect-on-covid-19-spread/ There you have it: Dr David Nabarro, WHO’s Special Envoy on COVID19: ‘Global catastrophe: doubling of poverty.. of child malnutrition. We really do appeal to all world leaders—stop using lockdowns.. Lockdowns just have one consequence: making poor people an awful lot poorer’

10/10/2020: Remarkable: Three generations of one family which span all of America’s history: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/us/lyon-gardiner-tyler-jr-dead.html I remember my own grandfather used to say he had known someone who was on the First Fleet, which seems unlikely but may well have been true.

10/10/2020: Getting it done - Isis beheaders brought to trial by US Justice Dept: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/10/us-justice-department-statement-on-charging-islamists-with-murder-of-us-citizens.html

10/10/2020: You need to understand that the American people are watching the Tucker Carson Show, something like this (BTW: Imagine our leftie journos letting their guests talk without interruption): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs71_gkaAuY&feature=emb_title For non-video folks text here: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/must-see-victor-davis-hanson-delivers-passionate-defense-trump-american-worker-authentic-america-represents-video/

09/10/2020: News you don’t hear: Pence clearly beat Harris hands down (link below). And consider this from Bin Laden’s niece in the Spectator, ‘Being pro-Trump has caused me more grief than being Bin Laden’s niece: And why do I support Donald Trump? Look at his record. He has stood up to China, kept America out of new wars, solidified ties with Israel, overturned the disastrous Iran deal and obliterated Isis. Domestically, he removed handicapping regulations to American economic growth, rebuilt a depleted military, brought back manufacturing and revamped dying industries by renegotiating trade deals and cutting taxes; he has achieved energy independence, curbed immigration — all of which contributed to setting record unemployment rates. He has tackled neglected issues such as human trafficking and unjust incarceration — and given America a chance at restoring her principles, pride, independence and true place in the world as beacon of liberty and hope for all.’ https://catallaxyfiles.com/files/2020/10/Being-pro-Trump-has-caused-me-more-grief-than-being-Bin-Laden%E2%80%99s-niece-_-The-Spectator.pdf & https://babylonbee.com/news/kamala-harriss-ratings-plummet-as-people-realize-theyd-have-to-listen-to-her-voice-for-next-4-years & https://spectator.org/polls-trump-biden/

09/10/2020: Well said, Rowan Atkinson on free speech; alas that we have lost it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiqDZlAZygU&feature=emb_title

09/10/2020: ‘As my 18th birthday approached, adult life looked bleak. I had a victim mentality, and felt as if I was owed something better.’ He figured it out. ‘most people I meet in the world just smile and say hello, even with a mask on. They seem to find life tolerable and even enjoyable. I see people going out to fish or mountain bike. I see tradesmen hustling. The healthiest people are the ones who picked a real tangible goal in their own life, and are working toward it.’ https://quillette.com/2020/10/05/a-poor-farriers-journey-to-political-sanity/

08/10/2020: After all, Not all the scientists agree on the best approach to Covid: https://unherd.com/2020/10/covid-experts-there-is-another-way/

08/10/2020: Biden illegally colluded with Obama and Hillary in the Russian hoax new evidence from the CIA files presented to the Senate show. Trump will have a field day with this, but the ‘fake news’ are refusing to run with it: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/07/fresh-from-bitch-slapping-virus-trump-crushes-russia-hoax/

08/10/2020: Waste and inefficiency in the ‘aboriginal industry’. This important article underlines how poorly targeted expenditure is and how it largely fails to meet those most in need, eg: ‘And yet, the number in need is modest. To reinforce just how small is the remnant group, and how grossly overblown is the industry built on their backs, a study of the most vulnerable children and their families in New South Wales has shown that of the 1000 individuals who required the greatest amount of money to administer to their needs, 78 per cent were Aboriginal. The total estimated future cost of this group to the age of forty is $2.3 billion, an average cost of $2.3 million per person. Left unstated is that each would be unlikely to make any contribution to society through employment and taxation. Aboriginal expenditure amounts to $33 billion per year, which suggests that a very large number of Aborigines are in receipt of programs and benefits that reward identity, not need.’ And how aspects of so-called ‘aboriginal culture’ (eg family formation) are the problem rather than the solution: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/09/the-cruel-deception-of-aboriginal-self-determination/

08/10/2020: Vitamin D is an awfully cheap ‘cure’: ‘The world’s first randomised control trial on vitamin D and Covid has just been published. The results are clear-cut…Half of those not given Vitamin D became so sick that they needed to be put on intensive care. By comparison, only one person who was given Vitamin D requiring ICU admission. Put another way, the use of Vitamin D reduced a patient’s risk of needing intensive care 25-fold. Two patients who did not receive Vitamin D died. And while the sample is too small to conclude that Vitamin D abolishes the risk of death in Covid patients, it is nonetheless an astonishing result, and corresponds with Prof Backman’s assertion that correcting vitamin deficiency might cut mortality by half. The Government should now act on this latest evidence’: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/britains-vitamin-d-deficiency/

07/10/2020: Woolly dogs and fish – a fascinating insight: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59723 A true shaggy dog story: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/10/a-true-shaggy-dog-story/

07/10/2020: Our China Budget: When the socialists won! It is simply awful, but it was predictable long ago – you know as far back as January when governments decided that instead of ‘fighting’ this virus with a little more Zinc and Vitamin D (for everyone as a preventative) and the judicious application of cheap drugs such Hydroxychloroquine, Ivomec, Dexamethasone etc for those who were infected as well as some attempt to keep it out of ‘vulnerable’ areas (eg by man-powering young recovered patients into caring for them) they almost all decided they would throw the whole economy at it – as if it was the Black Death or World War Three. It never was. It was never more than just another bad flu – as it turns out. WHO now admits it was not as bad as the last three! (see yesterday’s post). At the outset it was pretty clear that it had been engineered and released by the Chinese Government. It was a direct response to Trump’s attempts to bring China into the family of civilized nations and was designed to smash capitalism. Of course all the ‘fellow travelers’ in the West (the Left) would fall for more Keynesian (communist) responses to it, but why did ‘conservatives’ (like Morrison etc) also fall for this trap? I am so sick of everyone chasing the Left down their own awful rat-holes. That is all this budget is. It is exactly the reverse of what is needed. We need a massive wake-up call. People may actually need to suffer a little for a while to learn the lesson that you can’t have something for nothing. All this spending is just theft. The government is stealing the money from savers and future generations and squandering it on blankets and mirrors (sugar-hits of one kind or another: MacMansions, imported cars, travel, dining out – waste and ostentation). Huge numbers of public servants need to be sacked (they never could be afforded), wages need to be cut, interest rates need to go up, government spending needs to go way down. We need to work our way out of this. This Keynesian pump-priming will actually not work anyway. Japan has been doing this (even has a negative interest rates) for thirty years – and they are still in recession: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/06/budget-20-21-open-forum/ & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-the-embarrassing-figure-josh-frydenberg-didnt-mention/news-story/112ca42d2d5dd6e6e568f752f97a0be1

07/10/2020: Let’s see if people really want Kamala for President – surely not if they are in their right minds: ‘Look, I get it. Trump is indeed the word’s largest asswhole. He’s crass, he’s brash, he’s vulgar, he shoots from the hip. He’s stream of consciousness, telling us all exactly what he thinks at any moment … and that’s simply not done in polite society…But I didn’t vote to hire him because of his wonderfully modulated and non-abrasive personality. I voted to hire him because at the moment he’s the asswhole we need, for a simple reason. He’s the asswhole who gets the job done’: https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/05/kamala/

06/10/2020: ‘A happy society, a prosperous economy and low unemployment are not the objectives of good government. They are the byproduct of good government. But a focus group, a private poll and a lobbyist will never tell you this. To suggest, as will likely be suggested in today’s budget, that the solution to our national economic ills will be found in having a spend-a-thon is as wrong as suggesting that we can solve our debt burden by getting into more debt’. Yes, today’s budget is/will be quite insane – the ‘Long March through the institutions’ as I mentioned earlier – this time ‘conservative’ parties! https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/06/tafkas-budget-10c/

06/10/2020: The Long March (through the institutions). A brilliant essay: ‘The working class are too bright to be conned by Marxist idiocies, believing that all those things Marxists consider “false consciousness” — religious faith, patriotism, the family — are actually quite important. But there is an endless gullibility among the effete professional classes: their liberalism is boundless…’ Rod Liddle in the Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/the-revolution-will-be-televised-lefties-but-a-right-wing-big-beast-will-lead-it-zd7nwhsxz

06/10/2020: Well said Donald: ‘Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life’ (as he is about to leave hospital). Now people, can we please move on to tackling real problems like the economy, the enemies of freedom, securing world peace, how to promote progress, the quest for human happiness, where does your lap go when you stand up, and so forth! New WHO Data Reveals Coronavirus Less Lethal than Last Three Major US Pandemics — And they Destroyed the Economy for This: ‘Our current best estimates tell us that about 10 per cent of the global population may have been infected by this virus’. That suggests 780 million infections but ‘just’ 1 million deaths, a case fatality rate of 0.13 per cent. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1074692 & https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/new-data-reveals-coronavirus-4th-worst-us-pandemic-last-100-years-destroyed-economy/ PS: He looks good to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f2jrj_1RcM&feature=emb_title

05/10/2020: How evil it gets, (yet Vicpol were deep in this): Italy’s top newspaper, the Corriere della Sera, reports: “700,000 euros sent to Australia through various wire transfers may have been used to ‘buy’ the accusers in the paedophile trial against Cardinal George Pell.” https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/vatican-scandal-money-sent-to-australia-to-get-george-pell-jailed/news-story/82c32edf8c4eebdcb7acb2ee69efa4ea How easy is it to get someone to testify against you if someone pays them a million bucks to do so? But it did not matter how utterly implausible (nay, impossible) the accusations were; Vicpol is a deeply corrupt (Marxist) organization. I hope you remember that a number of independent witnesses gave statutory declarations all along that Cardinal Pell was always visible to them at the front of the church at the very time the alleged offences were occurring at the back of the church.

05/10/2020: Hopefully President Trump will be back at work tomorrow or the next day (and win the election!) Meanwhile this is what Kennedy’s health was like: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/04/the-health-of-the-president/

05/10/2020: Tucker Carlson and Mark Steyn are men to watch. They are such a refreshing change from the hysterical lock-step evil mind-set of the ‘conventional’ leftist journos: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/10/is-tucker-carlson-becoming-the-new-trump/ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6BAzMDpdiI&feature=emb_title

04/10/2020: Hearing Aids: I have always thought they were rather too expensive. Now down to $1: https://newatlas.com/lochaid-hearing-aid/

04/10/2020: New ‘real’ (Land Rover) Defender for 2021: https://newatlas.com/automotive/ineos-grenadier-4x4/

04/10/2020: Has there ever been another time when the future of the free world so hung on the health of one man (perhaps FDR?) If Trump bounces back after a few days having thrown the virus off I suspect it will be an enormous boost for his campaign. I for one anyway certainly wish him (and Melania) the best of health!

03/10/2020: Beware of the Dog: https://twistedsifter.com/2020/09/ancient-beware-of-dog-sign-from-over-2000-years-ago-pompeii/

03/10/2020: A supernova may have initiated the Ice Ages 2.5 million years ago: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/01/nearby-supernova-may-have-helped-to-initiate-ice-ages/

03/10/2020: Rude parrots are removed from public view but ‘our ABC’ can still spout filth with impunity: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-54340425

02/10/2020: Interesting Review of the new play, ‘Wonnangatta’ about the 1916 murders there: https://theconversation.com/wonnangatta-review-australian-theatre-writing-at-its-provocative-and-powerful-best-147184

02/10/2020: Why is California/Victoria burning? The people who actually live in the forests know they are ‘managed’ abysmally: http://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2020/09/substantial-ca-forest-management-changes-needed-especially-if-you-think-the-fires-are-caused-by-climate-change.html

02/10/2020: I noticed this myself: Joe Biden and Chris Wallace Started It by Interrupting Trump Numerous Times First (then Wallace proceeded to lecture Trump about giving people their two minutes’ of uninterrupted time…Many other similar observations here: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/01/further-reflections-on-the-first-debate/ & https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/10/01/further-reflections-on-the-first-debate/ And if you think Biden is not a crook, think again: https://richardsonpost.com/howellwoltz/18338/biden-and-kerry-corruption/

01/10/2020: Khayyam’s Table: Omar Khayyam of Naishapur (I prefer the old spelling) was a tent -maker, as I have observed before. In the past the truly great seminal thinkers were all tradesmen of one sort or another, that is they did not expect their thinking to pay their wages, but earned their living with their hands – as you ought. It would be better by far if we had remained with this system instead of being burdened with a horde of useless quarrelsome university parasites – of enormously lesser intellectual worth too.

Socrates was a stonemason (sculptor, if you like). Jesus a carpenter – and Nasrudin – well there was never someone else quite like Nasrudin. ‘The Exploits of the Incomparable Nasrudin’ by Idries Shah is the best book you have never read. You can read it for free here I promise you it will have you rolling in the aisles laughing! And if you have never read the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as you should, I have reprinted it all here: Oh Come With Old Khayyam I think it was the most important book I read as a teenager. I am so grateful that an ancient lady next door (Mrs Sewell) gifted me her copy of it – which I still treasure.

I wonder whether Khayyam had a table he worked on or whether he laid out his tents on the ground as I have done until now, but my knees do no want me to continue to do so, so I have made myself a large folding table for the purpose. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/10/01/khayyams-table/

01/10/2020: You better believe it: Climate emergency’ means house arrest: COVID ‘has revealed the inner-tyrants of many politicians’ ‘Under the pretense of a ‘climate emergency,’ politicians and bureaucrats will increasingly impose Covid-like restrictions on our jobs, transportation, food choices, housing and much else based the purported need to ‘reduce greenhouse gases’. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/30/ugly-climate-emergency-soon-to-justify-house-arrest/

01/10/2020: Why The Incentives Are Stacked to Overreact to Covid: ‘And many of our Western deaths have been among the very old in care facilities where the average life expectancy pre-COVID was numbered in months.’ http://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2020/09/why-the-incentives-are-stacked-to-overreact-to-covid.html

01/10/2020: Just three key points where Trump won the debate: Hunter Biden and voter fraud. The fact that Hunter flew to Moscow on the vice-presidential jet and took $3.5 million in bribes there is damning, as is this morning’s discovery of 100,000 ‘problem’ votes in New York alone: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/work/us-presidential-debate-2020-donald-trump-takes-on-joe-biden/news-story/59960d0caea67d0882dafd7a1cb1891a but most of all the roll-out of this rapid test which will allow the country to open up right now is a game-changer: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/09/theres_a_gamechanger_out_there_that_should_end_the_wuhan_virus_paranoia.html then there is this car full of ballots: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/a-car-boot-full-of-ballots-bought-for-800-a-vote-or-for-nothing-at-all/

30/09/2020: Ardent Leisure were yesterday fined $3.6 million for (negligently) causing the deaths of three people. Andrews and his ‘gang of eight’ have negligently caused the deaths of over 750 people. He/they are unfit to govern, and should quite properly be prosecuted with the full force of the law (and punished) for this unnecessary manslaughter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FDC4kKmCJ4&feature=emb_title

30/09/2020: Tax: Look, the Taxation Department will make sure you pay the taxes you have to; it is no-one else’s business, but there is usually no reason to pay income tax. Those who do so are choosing to ignore rules which allow them to not do so, eg legally available deductions and incentives. There is nothing ‘morally superior’ about dupes who ignore the detail of their tax situation and end up paying more taxes (for governments to squander on wastrels) than they needed to. That is all. I do not chose to give the government one cent more of my money than I have to (as close to zero as I can make it!). On the other hand I never take a cent of money from the government. Actually I don’t even believe in the idea of government, and would see it abolished everywhere, everywhen – but that is a lesson for another day: http://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2020/09/a-brief-primer-on-corporate-accounting-and-taxes.html Mind you the NYT story is a lie. Its own data shows Trump paid $1,000,000 in 2016 and $4,200,000 in 2017 for example: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/390533.php

30/09/2020: You might well think: This is bullshit. Let’s just get the virus and get over it as we have every other cold/flu which has come along. The loss of economic activity and freedom is not worth a handful of lives. However, if 10% of those infected never recover then the long-term effects of this bio-weapon are profound and we may need to firm up on a strategy of elimination – as China has been doing: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/the-doctors-who-still-havent-recovered-from-a-likely-bioweapon/ & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/footy-and-restaurants-still-off-limits-in-new-covid-normal/news-story/5d7f515f4689d62e03a4c022ce70d6c1

29/09/2020: High Flying: Into Vic's high country with The Grey Flyer. At last our draconian Covid restrictions have been eased a bit and we are able to get away hunting/hiking for a few days by ourselves. It is almost too late for this year's deer hunting season though, as soon it will be too hot. Next week looks good to start canoeing (though truth to be told, I have already been out)!

I had been yearning to get away all winter. I would like to have had better weather. It rained a lot - and even snowed. Also, unfortunately it was close to a full moon which always makes hunting less productive - or at least harder, as you have to go higher, harder for me these days with these old knees which had become sore again because of all the ploughing through mud the last month with the lambing. Because of it I have not been able to walk on my toes (as I recommended) which really helps, but I will be back to it now as the ground dries up a bit.

After a 4 1/2 hour's drive and a three hour walk, we are set up for the night. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/29/high-flying/

29/09/2020: I think freedom ended with the invention of the phrase, 'when it is safe to do so' ! The ‘Precautionary Principle’ ought to be outlawed: it is a prescription for totalitarianism!

29/09/2020: Apparently it was cold while I was away (but I was quite comfortable in my tent, thank you), the coldest it has been for fifty years even! So much for ‘global warming’ or ‘selective reporting’; as I prefer to call it: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/global-warming-causes-snow-in-sa-and-victoria-and-coldest-day-for-50-years/

29/09/2020: FYI: I am alive. I have been walking 80 km through the trackless Gippsland bush for a few days with Honey. More info soon.

24/09/2020: Sweden has beaten the coronavirus with herd immunity and without destroying freedom or the economy – where would you rather live? https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/where-would-you-rather-live.html

24/09/2020: Vale Jake Gardner (at the hands of BLM really) – of course this is just what the woke ‘counter culture want, ie the death of anyone who disagrees with them or opposes them, just as those same leftists have murdered over a hundred million people over the last century: https://www.steynonline.com/10642/last-orders-at-the-hive

24/09/2020: Moral Grandiosity: ‘While I feel guilt for my own bad actions or omissions, the kinds of things that are under my direct control, I do not feel guilt that my own life has been a comparatively fortunate one, probably more fortunate than that of the majority of mankind. On the contrary, I feel gratitude, or perhaps, more accurately, I should say gladness. I feel sorrow for the unfortunate, but not guilt toward them since I am not responsible for their sorrows. True, I did nothing to deserve having the opportunities that I have had, but I did nothing not to deserve them, either. I took the world as I found it and for me to feel guilty about my comparative good fortune would be a sign not of moral sensitivity or virtue, but of moral grandiosity. Moral grandiosity has probably done more harm in the world than indifference, inasmuch as it recognizes no limits to its power to bring about a supposedly better world.’ Dalrymple: https://www.takimag.com/article/guilt-complex/ PS: This is a ‘must read’.

23/09/2020: A Failure of Reason: I have commented about this before. The reduction in human CO2 output this year has had zero effect on the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere. I expected this because the human component of CO2 (identifiable by isotope analysis) has changed hardly at all since we were able to measure it around 1954 ie around 3-4%. Yes natural CO2 sources represent 97-97% of all the CO2 in the atmosphere – and always have! Therefore a reduction in the human component will have always little effect. CO2 has risen recently mostly because of the Medieval Warm Period 800 years ago – as the Ice Core data showed long ago, that is the lag time between warming and CO2 increase. Warming leads CO2 by 800 years. We still don’t know the reasons for this natural warming however. The ‘scientists’ have cause and effect reversed. The warming of the oceans (so long ago) slowly releases the CO2 which cannot be held in the warmer water – and that CO2 leads to a blossoming of life all over the world such as we are seeing now. Two areas the size of Australia of forest added over the last 30 or so years! https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth & https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/10/04/the-most-amazing-greening-on-earth-thanks-to-increased-carbon-dioxide/ & https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/22/corona-induced-co2-emission-reductions-are-not-yet-detectable-in-the-atmosphere/

23/09/2020: Covid as scam: I have been thinking this too. Whilst not discounting that people do actually die from the virus (as they do every year from flu etc) it has seemed to me that the panic and hype and insistence on drastic government action is symptomatic of other leftist plots (such as the climate scam, immigration, welfarism, poverty etc) anyway it is being used by such people to try to force an agenda, well multiple agendas. Already we have spent far, far too much and given up far, far too many freedoms. Better by far to die! Nikos Kazantzakis’ title for his amazing famous book, ‘Freedom and Death’ was well chosen. You can’t have one without the other.: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/22/whats-really-going-on-with-the-global-pandemic/

23/09/2020: Some good news for Dan: At last we seem to be getting on top of he ‘unknown’ cases of the virus. Our tracking has improved exponentially it seems A couple of weeks ago Sutton was admitting that ‘more than half’ of cases were not being tested. For the ‘unknowns’ to have plummeted (as they apparently have) this must have turned around somewhat. The Premier is still making idiotic decisions (like not fining the Fountaingate cluster spreaders) so there is no certainty about the future, but there is some hope: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/victoria-its-democracy-and-medical-science-and-getting-better-fast/ Mind you in Europe this ‘second wave’ seems awfully milder – evidence surely that we need to just start living with the virus and just use the readily available (safe) cheap remedies (Hydroxychloroquine, Ivomec, Bendaryl etc) to treat it: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/coronavirus-the-dying-stops-in-europe-are-we-more-immune-than-thought/news-story/ed7a2fd5f4b537af65acc81f3a5052d0

22/09/2020: The Grey Flyer: I have just finished making and erecting my new tent (‘the Grey Flyer0 – it is a very windy day!) in the garden, as you can see ahead of a trip I am planning soon. I just couldn’t resist finishing it so that I could take advantage of the 150 grams of savings compared with my Deerhunter’s Tent #2 which this is a slightly ‘shrunk’ version of (using 5′ wide material at 1.1 oz’yd2 instead of 5′ 6″ material at 1.25 oz/yd2).

I have used the ultralight groundsheet I made for the $30 Aricxi Tent but it is a little small for this tent. Its dimensions are 7′ x 4′ x 2’6″ (210 x 120 x 75 cm). I will make a larger one to fit this tent. It is going to be big enough for Della, the two dogs and myself, and still large enough to swing 1-2 hammocks underneath as well.

As you can see it weighs 476 grams including ten shepherd’s hook tent pegs (416 without). In the .93 oz/yd2 which i made the Siligloo out of it will weigh349 grams -= that’s including the groundsheet by the way, plus 62 grams for the ten pegs = 411 grams! Read more: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/22/the-grey-flyer/

22/09/2020: Moke: We had one in the mid 70’s, bought second-hand for $1300 (they cost about $2200 new in c1975). I think they will be a bit over-priced at $35,000 though: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/motoring/motoring-news/aussie-favourite-mini-moke-makes-surprise-return/news-story/a8d8c2e5708a3c2c97ccde63b520a82a

22/09/2020: Another Spring: (Della:)"I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older" - (Virginia Woolf). Spring in my garden today: Even 10 minutes gazing at the plants or pulling some weeds lifts my spirits. The brooding skies this afternoon created the right light and the perfect backdrop for the delicately coloured spring blossoms, and after very mixed results from the winter veggie patch this year (slugs, rabbits and early-bolting cauliflowers), I was also delighted to see the sugar-snap peas starting to produce pods and the garlic looking solid enough to rival the leeks...

..."The lark's on the wing;/ The snail's on the thorn;/God's in his heaven-/All's right with the world!" (Robert Browning, "Pippa's Song").

22/09/2020: Biden and Ginsberg herself (once) agreed Trump should appoint a new Supreme Court judge: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/democrats-for-trump.html & https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/the-late-justice-ruth-bader-ginsberg-the-president-is-elected-for-4-years-not-3-his-powers-continue-.html https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/21/the-biden-rule-on-judicial-appointments/

22/09/2020: It had never occurred to me that any vaccines used aborted foetuses, but unfortunately this is the case. However, if an alternative vaccine route is possible I think it should be used if only to increase the likely uptake of the vaccine because certainly there will be people who will reject a vaccine which their conscience tells them includes (unacceptable) foetuses: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/09/on-the-use-of-fetal-tissue-in-vaccines/

21/09/2020: Yet Another Use for Toilet Trowels: I have recommended that you always carry a metal trowel particularly as an aid to procuring survival water. A hatchet or machete is also vital for this if you ever travel in dry country – as who does not? Such a trowel is also a powerful tent anchor in sand or snow or other loose material.

If you have bought ultralight shoes such as my new Topos which have a tendency to fold inwards as you put them on – at least when new(ish) and if your old fingers are kind of arthritic as mine are and you have trouble fishing the bits out, then you will already know a shoe-horn presents itself as one of mankind’s greatest inventions – but who wants to carry one just for that purpose when a trowel will serve just as well – and you already have one? Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/20/yet-another-use-for-toilet-trowels/

21/09/2020: Alternative Fire Lighters: You will already know that I always carry a couple of Mini Bics for fire lighting. They are hard, if not impossible to beat at approximately 10 grams each. I recently added a 1.5 gram rubber Thimblette to prevent my burning my thumb especially when you need to hold the flame on for a protracted burn.

Much as I love them they do have drawbacks. They could explode for example though this is very unlikely and would probably require a welding splash or the like to cause it. They can fail (but anything can – one reason why I always carry more than one. You can probably think of others) and they are difficult to light after they become very wet eg by being submerged in a river, so that if you need to get a fire going quickly eg after you have just fallen through ice (or for some other reason you want an alternative lighter) I thought I would look into that ‘problem’. This is not an extensive survey, but just a few ideas. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/20/alternative-fire-lighters/

21/09/2020: Sketchers: Yet another lightweight shoe. This one the Sketcher Go walk claims to be only 206 grams in Mens US Size 9! Only A$99 (September 2020) so maybe worth giving them a try even just as ‘river crossing’ or camp shoes. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/20/sketchers/

21/09/2020: ‘In order to let the trees live, let the coal come to the surface!’ István Széchenyi (1790-1860) Just as true today as it was a century and a half ago! There is no future for ‘renewables’. There is no sanity to ‘zero emissions by 20250’ or any other such magical date. Indeed there is no ‘climate sensitivity’ – as I have posted about many times before (scroll back to see): ‘It is by no means certain that the increase in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is due to man. In fact, only four to five per cent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is of anthropogenic origin… The true carbon-climate sensitivity, as deduced by William Happer in a recent article in Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics, may be around 1 to 1.5 degrees Celsius… Yet the periodic dynamic changes of the largely unknown (or fragmentarily known and difficult-to-grasp) natural forces surpassing both human imagination and human ability to influence nature by a vast order of magnitude have always toyed with Earth’s climate as a plaything… A series of “extreme” weather events which have been declared a consequence of “climate change” have turned out to have geophysical and/or solar origins… the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 1992) distorted the concept of climate change in a way that is incompatible with science: natural causes were simply excluded from the concept of climate change... The good news is that some former media and climate gurus have already converted in an ecological sense: Michael Moore (the producer of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11) has released his documentary on biomass and solar energy fraudsters (Planet of Humans); Time magazine’s former “Environmental Hero” (Michael Schnellenberger), on the occasion of the premiere of his book (Apocalypse Never), publicly repented the sins of environmentalism. Finally, in Alberta, Canada, the documentary “Global Warning” providing a startling account of a place (Calgary) where an energy policy totally subordinate to climate policy has already won, has been nominated for an award.’ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/19/dissent-in-hungary/

21/09/2020: How foreshortened would the Democrats like Trump’s term to be. He has until January 20th still of his first term in office. That’s still 10% to go. How much of the previous 90% did the Dem’s try to deny him with their Russian hoaxes and etc? Let’s be adults here. In a democracy we chose the government/leader then stand back and let them do their job. Of course everyone wants it to be their own team who is running things, but that is not always the case. Ginsberg has been an execrable Justice presiding over constitutional obscenities such as same sex marriage which are a vile distortion of the intent of the writers of that document - who lived at a time (let’s remember) when homosexuality itself was punishable by the death penalty, so could clearly never have intended that the right to same sex marriage was enshrined in the constitution. If you want the constitution (or law) changed to allow or compel something (new) you need to get it past the people, not force it on them by bending foundation documents completely out of all understanding. That is the sort of creature Ginsberg was. She should not be replaced by anyone of a similar deviancy. Trump is right to move to nominate the best person to replace her now, not to kow-tow to her ridiculous death-wishes (which mostly included American democracy itself, let us remember). Think of all the people awaiting a decision from that court having to wait a further six months, and the cost of such delays. There are quite enough delays in the justice system already. I preferred the ancient Athenian notion that the trial and its decision’s execution should take place immediately after the offence and (if humanly possible) within a single day! https://richardsonpost.com/neil-braithwaite/18284/biden-confused-over-scotus-vacancy/

20/09/2020: Simple Ultralight Groundsheet: I just made this simple groundsheet for my Aricxi tent (and for a new tent I am working on ahead of a trip I am planning next week). It is made from some 1.1oz fabric I sourced from China which I am trialing, so I will let you know how it goes.

The fabric has silicone on one side and polyester on the other. I really like the handle of it (and the dull polyester surface. It is (finished size) exactly 7′ by 4′ at one end and 2’6″ at the other (210 x 120 x 75cm) with just a reinforcing patch and tie-out at each corner (which will tension to one of the existing tent pegs).

You really don’t need sides on a groundsheet. If water is running across the ground you can lay some sticks under the uphill side to prevent its running onto the sheet. In the 1.107 per square yard (37 grams/m2) fabric it weighs 95 grams finished. It cost me less than A$10 (September 2020. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/20/simple-ultralight-groundsheet/

20/09/2020: Typical Leftist ‘caring’. Who is most (financially) impacted by the Covid response? The poor, of course: http://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2020/08/wait-you-mean-that-the-economic-damage-from-covid-lockdowns-does-matter.html

20/09/2020: ‘Hayek, writing in 1945, notes that it had become fashionable to downplay the wisdom of the streets and assume that the experts, armed with lumps of aggregated information, knew best. Yet, as he pointed out, ‘these facts are never so given to a single mind’, which is why commentators, like central planners, so often get it wrong’. Nick Cater.

20/09/2020: Prisoners of Conscience: Andrews is a piece of scum. His thugs fined protesters safely objecting to some of his absurd laws but walked right past hundreds of others who were blithely defying his bans. He also excused others (because of their religion- guess which one) who knowingly and wantonly spread the virus – just as the same people let it out of hotel quarantine: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/daniel-andrews-slammed-as-protesters-fined-but-lawbreaking-spreaders-escape-scotfree/news-story/8701bd0503089dd904edfcdf55a4b5f4 See More: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/how-victorias-mad-inclusive-policies-made-the-virus-disaster-worse/news-story/67a48586a641548c7040d9b33c57621b

19/09/2020: I was only going to stab you - a tribute to being woke: https://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2020/09/i-was-only-going-to-stab-you.html?fbclid=IwAR0w1cUZdKHmggnbrKkOQVWecRwZpkmu7SnEvY1FJAIZ3_CfS3q_uP9Nn9k

19/09/2020: Little things that prevent you getting work done in Australia: https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/09/trying-to-get-some-work-done.html or https://twitter.com/i/status/1306135212472979457

19/09/2020: Our denial of coal is just eco-lunacy, as Terry McCrann writes: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccrann/terry-mccrann-the-power-stations-we-must-have/news-story/4f582c063d4dd9ab31bf2fed4119885a - and note again Willis’ observation that ‘climate sensitivity’ is just a nonsense: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/15/cooling-the-hothouse/

19/09/2020: White elephants the Government needs to scrap. Snowy #2 and the submarine deal are obvious low-hanging fruit – as is the ridiculous NDIS. With nearly 2 million public servants in Australia, that ‘tree’ promises rich rewards if it is cut down or at least lopped savagely. There are so many disastrous things which cry out for fixing eg building some new reliable (coal /nuclear) generators and scrapping renewables, abolishing national parks and most conservation and planning laws, abolishing separate state and federal jurisdictions, abolishing ‘aboriginal’ affairs, the immigration ‘system’, labor laws, welfare…I daresay we could get ourselves out of the economic mess (these three ‘diseases’) Gillard/Rudd/Covid created in a trimester at the longest and then forge onwards from there – if we can find the will: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/snowy-2-0-twice-the-cost-half-the-value-wastes-a-quarter-of-the-energy-and-wrecks-the-environment/

18/09/2020: Joe Hiden: Poor old Joe – he really can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, can he? Is a Harris administration really what the American people want? I very much doubt it: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/devastating-compelling-trump-campaign-commercial-with-the-truth-about-joe-bidens-teleprompter.html Here he is without a telepromter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sExGofYTfuI&feature=emb_title

18/09/2020: Can You Keep a Secret: I know I can so if this had been one you would not be reading this! When we were at the coast the other day I found a mysterious small oblong block of what we both took to be marble at the time but it was surprisingly heavy. We popped it into the superlight daypack to have as a keepsake as you do – even though it is no doubt like practically everything else probably illegal to do so. Read more: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/17/can-you-keep-a-secret/

18/09/2020: Wonnangatta Murders #16: ‘A new theory (August) has emerged in the case of missing campers Russell Hill and Carol Clay…with speculation the pair were attacked inside their tent now mounting’. At this glacial rate they will start looking for the bodies along the Zeka Track where I suggested they look at the outset in early 2021! https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/police-suspect-missing-high-country-campers-attacked-in-tent/news-story/e6ba88d14ab1dd1134ae135dd917afcb

But detectives have now (September) turned to ‘overseas sources’, so at least they have some lead/evidence which might solve this most puzzling case: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/overseas-experts-called-in-to-help-solve-missing-campers-mystery/news-story/8f874aec4bacbf04dc808270f598363d

18/09/2020: When even the leftist Chris Ullmann sees that government response to Covid was excessive and counter-productive then the likes of Dan, Annastacia and Jacinta are doomed: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/17/the-case-for-calling-off-the-covid-dogs/

17/09/2020: NASA data shows wildfires down by 25% - so much for ‘global warming’: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/16/irrefutable-nasa-data-global-wildfire-down-by-25-percent/

17/09/2020: Trump has all along called it ‘The China Virus’. This defector virologist proves him right: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/dr-li-meng-yan-claims-the-virus-is-man-made-and-spread-to-make-damage/

17/09/2020: And this brave Andrews whistleblower/defector shows that the whole government response to the virus was wrong: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/victorian-treasury-insider-explains-why-he-quit-rather-than-be-silenced-by-the-andrews-regime.html

16/09/2020: Cancel Culture and me. I have recently received two typical ‘Unfriendings’ from leftie ‘ex-friends’ of 20+ years. For example: ‘Can't stand the bullshit. Too much shit in my life I don't need your bullshit conspiracy theories and racism. Have a nice life.’ My response: ‘Your scatalogical obsession reveals a sad decline in your intellectual ability, as does your one-sidedness and shrinking from a diversity of ideas and opinions. I have looked back through my posts (viewable here: http://www.finnsheep.com/Steve's%20Blog.htm). I was raised among aboriginals in Western NSW and still have many as my friends. They too would be surprised that anyone should think me a racist when I have argued against racism all my life. I also cannot see any 'conspiracy theories' in my thinking or posting. I always give reasons (and usually evidence and references) for what I say - though Facebook posts are by their very nature brief. I am also always willing to engage in civilised dialogue, though never name calling. I think it is sad you are so diminished. PS: At the same time I have made several new (Facebook – and other) friends who are of the opposite disposition, so all is good.

16/09/2020: Nuts to ‘climate sensitivity’! Willis simply blows it away! What a wonderful breath of fresh air. Do read this: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/15/cooling-the-hothouse/

16/09/2020: So, Scott will build a new (gas) generator! Good start. Get real Scott though and build (some new) coal and/or nuclear generators. The era of the ‘renewables’ scam is surely over. Only kindergarten kids could still believe that any cheap or useful energy could be extracted from sunbeams (or as Jonathan Swift styled it so long ago, cucumbers) or wind (duh!): http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/winning-labor-party-drops-2030-renewable-target-libs-build-gas-plant-still-scared-of-climate-bullies/ & https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/15/no-wind-in-dans-sails-scomo-on-fire-sort-of-and-leave-it-to-lean/ PS: I realize these decisions wilol upset Laura Tingle and other ABC parasites – maybe time their apron strings were cut permanently too – they could maybe learn to shear sheep!

15/09/2020: So Blue: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59562

15/09/2020: Do you think people will vote for this (people celebrating the ambush shooting of two police in the head), or vote for law and order and Trump? You chose: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/black-american-videos-himself-rejoicing-at-shooting-of-2-la-sheriffs-no-one-present-went-to-aid-the-.html & https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/09/hope-btch-dies-blm-chants-31-year-old-la-police-officer-mother-ambushed-shot-head-try-breach-hospitalvideo/

15/09/2020: Mind you our own police did not exactly cover themselves in glory with the ‘arrest’ of a mental patient by running over him with a car or their ‘storm trooper’ tactics at the Vic market (what idiot chose those uniforms?): https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/new-video-shows-victoria-police-schutzstaffel-drive-a-car-into-the-man-they-then-stomped-on-the-head.html & https://twitter.com/i/status/1305004087906164737

14/09/2020: P.J.O’Rourke is just great. Here’s a sample, ‘The 19th century spawning of idle, dreamy, feckless young people arrived just in time for the Marxist intellectual fad. And Marxist thinking among intellectuals is a fashion trend that has never gone away.

Intellectuals like Marxism because Marx makes economics simple — the rich get their money from the poor. (How the rich manage this, since the poor by definition don’t have any money, is beyond me. But never mind.)

Real economics are more complicated than anything that intellectuals can make sense of.

Also, living in an ivory tower teaches few economic lessons — even fewer now that intellectuals have banned the ivory trade. Marxism puts inarticulate notions of a sharing-caring nicer world into vivid propaganda slogans. Slogans such as: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” Which may be the most ridiculous political-economic idea that anybody has ever had.

My need is for Beluga caviar, a case of Chateau Haut-Brion 1961, a duplex on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park, a bespoke suit from Gieves & Hawkes in Savile Row, a matched pair of Purdey 12-bore sidelock shotguns and a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that recently sold at Sotheby’s Monterey auction for $48.4 million.

My ability is … Um … I have an excellent memory for limericks …

There once was a man from Nantucket …“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is deeply stupid and completely impractical. And yet there’s a place where it works. This place is my house. And your house. And anywhere else there’s a family.

To each according to his need … What don’t kids need? My 16-year-old son needs Mom to drive to school with his lunch, his homework and one sock. Never mind that she packed his lunch, did his homework and washed his socks — one of which he left behind this morning along with his homework and his lunch so that she has to drive back to school even though she just returned from driving him to school.

From each according to Mom’s and Dad’s ability, not to mention the ability of Mom’s and Dad’s Visa card credit line and the bank loans we took out to pay for school tuition.

The grim truth is, kids are born communists.’ Read on: https://nypost.com/2020/09/12/pj-orourke-this-is-why-millennials-adore-socialism/

14/09/2020: How Dan actually works – it’s quite chilling: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/13/if-you-read-one-op-ed-today/

13/09/2020: Carpe Diem. ‘Seize the Day’. There are only a certain number of them. No-one knows how many or ever will. ‘Some days are diamonds‘ as the song says – and in my (fortunate) experience, most are. Anyway one where you keep on breathing in and out has to be a good one.

It was a beautiful spring day, 23C at Licola, wind at 9 kph NNW and river height of 1.87, absolutely perfect conditions for canoeing my beloved Macalister River again.

13/09/2020: When will we hear from the PM and the Liberal Party on this terrible theft of private property rights? https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccrann/terry-mccrann-clive-palmer-has-a-right-to-challenge-wa-government-in-court/news-story/f226ca6713ecb008bba885daf79d8045 & https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/28/democratic-banana-republic-of-western-australia-part-too-many/

13/09/2020: The Science is Settled – well, not quite yet: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/10/49-nasa-scientists-call-bs/

13/09/2020: Dan just ahead of ‘Don’t Know’ and behind ‘Don’t Know His Name’ (O’Brien – you may have to learn it!) and it’s no surprise: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/12/well-maybe-perhaps/

12/09/2020: 75 Years on – this is a ‘must watch’: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/final-account-film-review-venice-2020

12/09/2020: These are cheap remedies Dan. End the bans. They reduce mortality enormously. Vitamin D, Zinc, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivomec, Azithromycin…Use them and let us open up a little: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/vitamin-d-reduced-the-rate-of-icu-admission-from-50-to-2-do-black-lives-matter/ And Scott, this is a national disaster. You must act: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/10/how-do-we-come-out-of-this-alive/

12/09/2020: Koalas and other thieves and freeloaders: We are obliged to share our lambs with the local eagles. The ewes don’t agree with this policy either but they can’t do much about it. Bizarrely enough we can get a permit to shoot up to five of them (every year) though we have never done so, but we are not eligible for any compensation for the lambs they eat! I have always taken the view that the eagles are public property and our lambs are private property. I would be fined if my sheep intrude onto public property. I think it is reasonable that the pubic pays for the upkeep of their eagles which involves compensating us for the lambs the eagles eat. Frankly I am terrified by this koala issue. Again government is deciding it can make rules which effectively confiscate private property without paying compensation. The native and introduced vegetation on private land no doubt supports a variety of both native and introduced animals. However all this property (including the vegetation and the animals) are in fact private property. Declaring that the ‘native’ component is ‘public’ property is in fact confiscation and has been compensatable since at least Magna Carta and is specifically protected by a Section of the Australian Constitution. At great expense and trouble we have erected wildlife proof fences to protect our private land and animals from the depredations of foxes, cats wombats and kangaroos. At the same time we have planted thousands of trees for the amenity of both native and farm animals – and our own. We are happy to have chosen (native) birds and animals protected behind our fences (just as our sheep are). We would not be so happy to have to take the fences down to allow the ingress of kangaroos, koalas or any other native animal whose ingress and egress would in fact jeopardize the purpose of our fencing and our planting etc – by also allowing back in foxes and cats, and by eating all the grass.On a ten acre paddock next door (which we used to rent there is at present a mob of over thirty eastern grey kangaroos. We used to run about the same number of ewes in that paddock when we rented it up to about ten years ago. You could not run a single sheep on it today unless you fenced out the kangaroos which have been allowed to breed up unchecked in the neglected bushland behind us. The kangaroos have eaten the grass down to the ground. There is nothing sacred about native animals. There is just the same need to manage and care for them as is the case with farm animals. However, if the public wants to essentially confiscate private land for public purposes (such as wildlife conservation) they must pay for that confiscation. This has been an accepted principle of British justice for a thousand years: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/anna-caldwell-coalition-infighting-doesnt-help-anyone-in-the-city-or-the-bush/news-story/e22835dfcd1cee13e63624c128135369?from=htc_rss

11/09/2020: Just like Rousseau's ‘noble savage’ which has proved to be a misnomer for ‘violent savage’ the idea of savages as grand conservationists is just nonsense.For example, ‘aboriginal’ Australians all-but ruined this wonderful continent turning it from pretty much a lush ‘garden of Eden’ into a pitiless desert and so denutrifying the soils to the point that not much else would grow but dreadful weeds such as gums, wattles and poa tussock over vast areas. To their great credit European Australians have since improved on most of that enormously so that we can now feed over 100 million people world-wide: https://quillette.com/2020/09/06/the-myth-of-harmonious-indigenous-conservationism/

11/09/2020: Things look better with gaslight: 75 riots a month fueling the ‘racial divide’. Bad news indeed. Folks will definitely vote for Donald rather than have more of this: https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/06/things-look-better-with-gaslight/

11/09/2020: IMOK – Indeed I am off to canoe again the Macalister for the day. Something like this: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2017/10/18/silver-river-endless-sky/

10/09/2020: When our General Blamey accepted the Japanese surrender 75 years ago yesterday (on Morotai) he said ‘he did not recognise the Japanese as an honourable and gallant foe, recalling the treacherous attacks made by them against China, the British Empire and USA, and the atrocities that had been inflicted upon prisoners of war.’ Be warned, we are seeing the same behaviour from China today. https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/otd-9-sept-1945-general-blamey-accepts-japanese-surrender-at-morotai-ending-australian-ww2-operation.html

10/09/2020: Just more Green madness. Forests felled to make green electricity; mountainsides covered with bird & bat killing machines, deserts paved with (similar) solar, ‘organics’ requiring 28% more land for agriculture which could have been wilderness, vast forests cleared to create ‘biofuels’, etc, etc. These people are nuts: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/green-groups-save-the-coal-underground-but-destroy-the-forest-above/ And of course, no-one wants to buy an electric car; not even 4% of motorists ever! http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/a-quarter-of-the-uk-wont-even-buy-an-electric-car-in-their-lifetimes/

10/09/2020: At last some figures. For example NZ has spent 190 times the ‘normal’ spend on ‘saving’ each individual life from Covid 19. I have been saying this all year (since January). Any individual life has an economic cost/worth. Much as day-dreamers may want to say, ‘You can’t put a cost on human life’ you only have to divide the size of the economy by its individual members to get a figure which puts the lie to that. You just can’t throw the whole economy away on saving an individual life or even a small fraction of them. Governments have always set limits even if we did not know exactly what the limits were - and were sometimes whimsical in demanding that particular individual lives be ‘saved’ no matter the cost. Tony Bullimore springs to mind. The best public health measures have always been those whose per capita cost vs return was lowest. Clean water/sanitation were the most important (in the C19th). Nothing since goes anywhere near them. All along we needed to learn to live with this virus and manage it – once Scott failed early on to keep it out by waiting too long to shut the door and then all failed to stop its spread. Elimination was an unlikely strategy and a vaccine is only likely to be one of a number of management ‘tools’, (if it works at all) just as cheap drugs such as Hydroxychloroquine, Ivomec, Zinc, Vitamin D, antibiotics, etc should be. The blunt truth is that (new) diseases cull the human population. They always have and always will. I have all along accepted that I (and my loved ones) may well be among the culls. That is also as it has always been, though we personally have made every effort to avoid it – more effort than any of our governments so far have I must say: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/us-vice-presidential-nominee-kamala-harris-says-she-does-not-trust-donald-trumps-coronavirus-vaccine-claims/news-story/f89c2d0e7e45281899de965d799ae0f9 PS: Most of our lock-down rules have been unnecessary or onerous and should never have been implements: bans on playing golf, going fishing, hunting or camping by oneself or with members of our household for example. They should be scrapped forthwith. Dan’s roadmap is a farce. PPS: This woman is an electrician but she has more common sense than the ‘experts’ which have so far been informing government policy: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/09/tabitha-alloway-rule-by-experts-is-tyranny-shrouded-in-science/ PPPS And now some indication of why Victoria’s second-wave has been less deadly than the first: masks increase asymptomatic infection over symptomatic: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/good-news-more-masks-means-more-asymptomatic-infections-and-less-severe-ones/

09/11/2020: Ultralight Tyvek Wallet: Given my predilection for this wonderful material it will probably not surprise you that I have carried a Tyvek wallet for many years. I have probably worn out half a dozen over the years. I guess they usually last me 2-3 years before they look so shabby I feel I must replace them – as I have done today, as my new ones have arrived, at last. the post is so slow at the moment.

The ones I am using work purchased from Dynomighty and cost me US$ 16.95 each plus some delivery, so perhaps A$25 each in my hands – something like that. I think this is reasonable value. You may find them elsewhere more conveniently.

The wallets weigh between 13-14 grams empty and are wonderfully thin and well-sized. I find most wallets far too big for jeans pockets pretty much in every direction. Already i have too many cards in this one and need to cull them again. Some can go onto my phone using an App such as Stocard – which I use. I notice there are no notes at all for the two billfold sections, a tribute to the virus! Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/09/ultralight-tyvek-wallet/

09/09/2020: Vale John, My Facebook Memory from five years ago today. Time passes so swiftly: ‘Last night I learned of the death of one of my oldest friends, John Seamer whom I have known since we were in Year 10 (1964), so 51 years! We were very close at University and in our twenties. Having now lived most of our lives half a continent apart with irregular phone calls and even more irregular visits, I am surprised at the depth of feeling of loss I have this morning: You may guess I ‘hear Time’s wing’d chariot hurrying near’ – and it is true. You may well think there is time aplenty to do all those things you dream of, but for John there is no more time at all, so I hope he did not die with many regrets of things left undone. I had planned a three day hike with Spot in my beloved Gippsland mountains starting this morning, so I will waste no time leaving that particular ambition undone…’ I am once again planning on a multi-day hike in the Vic mountains with just my dog. This one may not be strictly legal and I just don’t care. I would pay the fines if necessary.

09/09/2020: The Gaslighting Effect – a ‘must read’: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/35445-Media-Gaslighting.html

09/09/2020: Steve Kates puts this disaster in perspective perfectly, ‘There will eventually have to be a reckoning. How did we let this happen and how can we make sure it never happens again? This non-crisis will eventually come to an end’: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/09/why-has-the-covid-crisis-not-disappeared-already/ Now we learn this. Those Covid tests are crap: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/07/covid-19-testing-1000-times-too-sensitive/

09/09/2020: ‘How many sheep do I have to shear to pay for some lazy bugger on the dole?’ Too many people just don’t want to work! Weeks ago I posted about all the ‘worker wanted’ ads on businesses in our local area – and that are still there – because of ‘Jobseeker’ and ‘Jobkeeper’ which I said at the time need to be renamed with the (dirty) word ‘work’ in them. Another example, Australia’s sheep would be being shorn twice a year (instead of once) but instead the nation’s sheep flock has been halved (partly) because you can’t get anyone to shear them - even though a shearer can earn over $500 a day! There are other huge areas where Australia’s food export industry could be expanded enormously – but you can’t get any of the millions on welfare to do the work! ‘Work’ is a dirty word and quite beneath them. Holding your hand out and shrieking about your ‘disadvantage’ is just so much easier. https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/how-many-sheep-do-i-have-to-shear-to-pay-for-some-lazy-bugger-on-the-dole.html Instead we have this: ‘Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia. Has offered a course to students in “How to Overthrow the State”’. https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/09/how-to-overthrow-the-state/

08/09/2020: McCrann is pefectly right: Andrews’ resignation is the essential circuit-breaker for Victoria’s Covid fiasco. Only when he is gone is there any prospect of bringing the situation back to ‘nomralcy’ let alone controlling the virus – and we really must talk about controlling and treating (not banning treatment). We also need to be more realistic about the cost we are willing to pay for a life (year) saved. No, it could never be infinite. All that ‘cost’ has to be paid out of social ‘profit’. If there is no ‘profit’ then many more life years will be lost than the virus will cost. I said at the outset of this crisis (back in January) that we simply could nopt afford to spend $100,000 saviung my life (or anyone else’s) and that we should not. We have stupidly spent mpore than $2 million (per life) so far trying to do that, but destroyed many millions of lives for years to come in the process. We must stop that silliness. The cheapest route is very often the only one available. That is why people have had such success all over the world with cheap remedies such as cough syrup (Yes!), Ivomec, Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, cheap antibiotics and especially Vitamin D. These have saved millions of lives worldwide – probably more than any more expensive vaccine in fact will – because it will become available only after the worst of the epidemic has already passed – and it is just silly (and absurdly partisan to claim otherwise)!

‘Almost all of those Victorian deaths — something like 655 of the 675, and counting — were a direct result of the criminal negligence of the quarantine debacle.

It’s not me claiming that, it’s what the Premier’s own Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, has said; that genomic tracing indicated that almost all the cases in the “second wave” came from that source.

The quarantine catastrophe was a direct result of decisions made by the Andrews Government.

The cases and deaths alone were bad enough; what has made it worse, so much worse — in terms of governance failure — is the economic, financial and broader destruction, seeping deep into the lives of all 6.5 million Victorians, that the Premier has mandated.

That he has mandated, arguably unnecessarily and even punitively. It doesn’t seem to have even occurred to the Premier — silly me, of course it wouldn’t occur to him — that all this devastation he has mandated is precisely the most crushing and irrefutable condemnation of his and the government’s inexcusable failure’. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccrann/terry-mccrann-victorias-premier-must-quit-over-his-governments-ineptitude/news-story/5c61be1c41f282439074d267b749b83d

07/09/2020: Fathers’ Day at Seal Cove: Due to the Covid lock down none of our children could visit us but Della and I could still go for a drive together. Such freedom. That’s what we all fought for!

We headed down to a secret place along the Gippsland coast where we thought we might be able to scramble down the cliffs to a private cove. I won’t say whether it is legal or not to go there. There are many things (simple pleasures) I will never live long enough to enjoy legally – likewise my tiny dogs who though they are good Australians who pay all their taxes on their dog food (and will never take a dollar of tax in return) are yet forbidden from so many parts of our beautiful country – though they are devoted ‘leave no trace’ believers!

Anyway we are always off-track walkers and really only want to go where we will find no other people anyway so what odds? It turned out we could (even in my seventies – women as is well known, do not age) though it is pretty steep and thick in places. It turned out to be a really beautiful little cove about a kilometre long. Some great fishing to be had off the rocks I would say, and with hog deer walking right down onto the beach of a night! We saw many of their tracks. A paradise all our own! Read on: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/09/06/fathers-day-at-seal-cove/

06/09/2020: ‘When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination,’ Thomas Sowell

06/09/2020: How theft became justice - Now there is a book: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/04/in-defense-of-looting/

06/09/2020: Dan the Man, ‘If brains were taxed you’d get a refund.’ Well said Matthew Guy: https://www.facebook.com/matthew.guy.58323/videos/746482112800234 If you haven’t watched this video exposing what tyrant Andrews is imposing on people in their own homes, you should: https://www.facebook.com/australianlibertyalliance/videos/324201368696707

05/09/2020: It’s Over Dan: You can’t lock the people down any longer. Thousands of protesters in Albert Park. It’s pointless anyway now that Sutton has admitted that 50% of people with symptoms are refusing to be tested – so how many without symptoms? The level of testing keeps falling but real cases of the virus are obviously increasing exponentially – even in lockdown. We must now give up and just live with it: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/police-warn-of-consequences-ahead-of-planned-antilockdown-protest-in-the-melbourne-cbd/news-story/1a5e95917ab191adfd96d55296424933

Courtesy of Thomas Osburg - Andrews invents the numbers: We are watching a Government fail and fall today.

05/09/2020: This is what a tyrant Andrews is. He is cancelling people’s Shooter’s Licences and confiscating their firearms if they are accused of ‘breaching health regulations’ eg by going for a walk alone in a public place without wearing a mask or suggesting people should protest Dan’s onerous restrictions or camping out alone overnight (in the wilderness) whilst lawfully hunting (eg waiting for hounds to return). This is a dreadful over-reaction. People may have costs of thousands of dollars and a wait of years to get their lawful rights back again: https://nationalshooting.org.au/blog/f/nsc-launches-action-on-vicpols-covid-19-licence-threats?fbclid=IwAR33io6XWnoLxOiBKzDQDdNKoUSNPta5oW1OMF1AgnIXkDoqmreAVTJtWJg

05/09/2020: Something I didn’t know - Pine Cone Preserves - Soft young cones make a sweet jam believed to have health benefits in Russia and Georgia: https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/pine-cone-preserves

05/09/2020: What Melbourne Uni has come to – Bruce Pascoe has been made a Prof of ‘Indigenous Agriculture’ there! Gadzooks: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2020/09/bruce-pascoes-even-more-unreliable-history/ I have nothing but admiration for the way aboriginal Australians ‘triumphed’ over a deadly environment in Australia by adopting a lifestyle which enabled them to survive where agriculture would not have, eg droughts which went on for centuries, in the centre of the astonishingly harsh Gibson Desert & etc. As Geoffrey Blainey pointed out in ‘Triumph of the Nomads’ this was an astounding success. But they were not ever farmers. This is just supercilious invention and frankly utterly demeaning. Who amongst us could survive a week alone in the Gibson or Simpson deserts where these people lived and enjoyed a rich culture for many centuries? Possibly farmers would have abetter chance than city folks and hunters might last a little longer than most but I doubt practically anyone today has the skills and knowledge not only to survive there but to thrive there. There is nothing ‘wrong’ or ‘low’ about being a ‘hunter-gatherer’.

05/09/2020: Good on you Tony! Fair comment I would say, ‘Gillard created this bullshit narrative about Tony. I don't think she ever got over being knocked back my a happily married man of great integrity. Tony saw Gillard for exactly what she is.’ Women who know him well have a different narrative: What his (gay) sister says about him, ‘It is nothing short of dishonest..to label hm a homophobe and misogynist’, and Peta Credlin, ‘Do you think that somebody who hated women would hire me? It's complete and utter rubbish.’ https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/tony-abbotts-sister-rises-to-defend-him-from-ignoramous-pommy-commentators-and-gillard.html This is how Kay Burley, the MP who accuses Abbott of being a misogynist treats other women. See her here choking another woman: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1028007/Pictured-The-incredible-moment-Sky-TV-presenter-Kay-Burley-grabbed-rival-throat.html

04/09/2020: Oddly enough as a sheep breeder, I would have culled this ram – just don’t like its head. Looks unviable to me. Perhaps a bad photo. We all take them sometime: https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/animals/texel-sheep-double-diamond-sells-for-record-666000/news-story/46ed88944dd80cfed1daf1ac882cd76c

04/09/2020: Gertude Himmelfarb should be a set text in our schools. For example, ‘The beasts of modernism have mutated into the beasts of postmodernism-relativism into nihilism, amorality into immorality, irrationality into insanity, sexual deviancy into polymorphous perversity. And since then, generations of intelligent students under the guidance of their enlightened professors have looked into the abyss, have contemplated those beasts, and have said, 'How interesting how exciting.' Today, students in some of the most distinguished departments of literature are all too often reading books about how to read books. Literary theory has replaced literature itself as the fashionable subject of study. Structuralism and deconstruction, gender theory and the new historicism, reader-response and speech-act theory-these are more hotly debated than the content and style of particular novels or poems.’: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/35423-Book-du-Jour-On-Looking-Into-the-Abyss.html

04/09/2020: ‘We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end,’ George Orwell. I have always said people should respect the police and do as they say, but who can respect this Andrews stooge Cornelius: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/victoria-police-on-protests-blm-were-not-able-to-stop-people-protesting-anti-lockdown-well-be-out-in.html & in addition: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/fmr-high-court-chief-murray-gleeson-where-summons-is-available-arrest-is-quite-wrong-its-a-serious-a.html

03/09/2020: 75 Years Ago Yesterday the Japanese finally surrendered. The heroes of the Enola Gay had done a great job. If maybe you wonder whether they really were such evil monsters you have been living in a dream world.

03/09/2020: Good on you Charlie Hedbo – we must not be intimidated or overrun by this vile creed which must be abolished from all civilized lands. BTW1: Good luck with trying to find a copy of these cartoons anywhere on our ‘free press’: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/02/no-mo/ BTW2: France is lost. Do we want to become like France? https://www.meforum.org/61415/gurfinkiel-on-the-reverse-colonization-of-france

03/09/2020: The great Brett Sutton (hearthrob of the Left) now admits that over 50% of people with symptoms are not being tested –something which was apparent to me some time ago. He has no plan to make this happen. The virus in Victoria ia now out of control, and will not be controlled by more fascism that the public will no longer tolerate. They must free up the cheap treatments, make sure all the young people are infected as soon as possible whilst keeping people in old people’s homes cared for by people who have already had the virus. This must be done today. We will use the virus as a vaccine for the virus – much cheaper and quicker anyway. Re-open the economy immediately. Further: All those fancy research dollars missed this too: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/09/even-cough-syrup-might-actually-work-against-coronavirus/ And this: there were over 500 more deaths in Vic last July compared with this one: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/doctors-warn-dan-andrews-lift-your-dangerous-virus-bans/news-story/d307d17aa9bfe8370d3db963d7e1cb8a & https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/09/victorias-births-deaths-and-marriages-deaths-registered-per-month-.html & Good luck locking these guys down: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8673557/Imam-calls-Muslims-stand-speak-against-Dictator-Dan-Andrews-lockdown.html?fbclid=IwAR1N2XD7zQEznekm7q1qNkW27NKG1anUIgMPWNVlEK5sFxKHuU6OhfEk9lM Meanwhile, Jim’s Mowing is suing Andrews over stupid, costly and onerous lockdown rules – and good luck to him. I hope he succeeds: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/jim-penman-qcs-opinion-on-businesses-suing-andrews-government-over-lockdown-provisions.html

02/09/2020: I have long argued that life years (lost) is a more appropriate metric for assessing various elements of public policy such as road speeds, alcohol percentages, compulsory seat-belts and so on. Here’s how that idea works out with Covid: ‘Combining these analyses, we found that an estimated 18.7 million life-years will be lost in the United States due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. Comparative data analysis between nations shows that the lockdowns in the United States likely had a minimal effect in saving life-years. Using two different comparison groups, we estimate that the COVID-19 lockdowns in the U.S. saved between a quarter to three quarters of a million life-years’ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/01/the-real-cost-of-lockdowns/ They found this in the UK too: https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-lockdown-may-have-indirectly-caused-16-000-excess-deaths-study-12044923 Here’s what some Vic doctors think: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/09/a-doctors-open-letter-to-daniel-andrews/

02/09/2020: Harris and Biden actually support this violence and anarchy, and call on it to continue whilst Trump calls for ‘law and order’. Who do you think you would vote for? https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/rita-panahi/antifa-and-blm-protesters-continue-their-reign-of-terror/news-story/7bcb9103329b7e029944fc681f780763 Here is what she actually said, Riots won’t stop and neither should they: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIdbdSWR9_U&feature=emb_title Here are some others, Pelosi etc calling for more violence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yYplnEkbqU&feature=emb_title

01/09/2020: Senators Hanson and Roberts completely demolish the CSIRO’s false narrative of anthropocentric climate change - I’m so glad I put these people first on my ballot paper – they seem to me to be the only ones in the federal parliament who have Australia’s interest at heart: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/senators-pauline-hanson-malcolm-roberts-press-conference-call-for-csiro-chief-to-go.html

01/09/2020: Covid has killed less than 10,000 people in the USA (with a population over 350 million). More people choke to death each year on chewing gum! It would have been less than a quarter of this if people had access to (<$10 per head) Hyrdroxycloroquine/Ivomec + Zinc +Antibiotic therapy. It is just insane to shut the economy down for such a trivial cost in lives: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/31/stunning-cdcgov-update-on-covid19-us-deaths-overestimated-by-177/

01/09/2020: Gilgamesh and Enkidu Beer. Try some today: https://theconversation.com/brewing-mesopotamian-beer-brings-a-sip-of-this-vibrant-ancient-drinking-culture-back-to-life-142215?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20August%2028%202020%20-%201716116576&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20August%2028%202020%20-%201716116576+Version+A+CID_921928b7ac651016641bbe91308f0c0a&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=Brewing%20Mesopotamian%20beer%20brings%20a%20sip%20of%20this%20vibrant%20ancient%20drinking%20culture%20back%20to%20life

31/08/2020: Thanks Matt Ridley, Let’s have an end to environmental pessimism – the future is bright, ‘Why is the wolf population increasing, the lion decreasing, and the tiger now holding its own? The answer is simple: Wolves live in rich countries, lions in poor countries, and tigers in middle-income countries. It turns out that we conservationists were wrong to fear economic development in the 1980s. Prosperity is the best thing that can happen to a country’s wildlife…What else might we achieve by the year 2060, when I shall be 102? Even though there will then be more than nine billion people, it is almost certain there will be larger forests, more wildlife, cleaner rivers, and richer seas, because that is what is currently happening. Most people who deny this, and insist things are getting worse, are simply wrong.’ http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/against-environmental-pessimism/

31/08/2020: As with ‘unprecedented’ I have had quite enough of the word’ vulnerable’ which I can at least both spell and pronounce – unlike the great majority of the chattering classes. Until this situation has been corrected by draconian legislation I think the word should be banned. I think it is highly undesirable anyway to draw people’s attention to the fact that some members of society seem to have as their key distinguishing characteristic that they are ‘piss-ants’. Some common misspellings which I am sure we have all heard recently on the 7:00 o’clock news: vanurable (0.1%) vulenable (0.5%) vunarable (0.7%) vonerable (4.1%) vulnerble (1.6%) vunerable (54.3%) vulnable (0.3%) vounerable (0.9%) vurnrable (0.1%) vunurable (0.5%) voulnerable (1.2%) vulnrable (1.8%) vlunerable (0.3%) vulnerbale (0.3%) volnerable (2.8%) volnerble (0.3%) vulnarable (2.4%) vulnorable (0.3%) vulnurable (1.2%) vulterable (0.3%) vurnarable (0.3%) vonurable (0.3%) vurnerable (1.2%) vaunerable (0.3%) vurnable (0.4%) vunrable (8.8%) vunrebale (0.3%) vunerabal (0.3%) vulnreable (0.3%) valunerable (0.3%) vulenrable (0.3%) velnerable (0.1%) vulernable (1.8%) vounurable (0.3%) vonrable (0.7%) vunlerable (0.3%) vulerable (3.4%) vounarable (0.3%) vaulnerable (2.4%) vaulnurable (0.3%) vulberable (0.3%) vaunrable (0.7%) valnerable (0.4%) vonarable (0.3%) valnerble (0.5%) vulnarbal (0.3%) vulneraalbe (0.3%) vulnerabie (0.3%) vulneranle (0.3%) vulnerval (0.3%) vunarble (0.3%) vuneralbe (0.3%) vurenable (0.3%) http://www.etymology-online.com/vulnerable

31/08/2020: We surely all know by now that Andrews’ response to the coronavirus (like everything else the buffoon does) was utterly feckless, but pretty much every government’s response has been hopeless and hugely destructive. If communists did engineer this so-called ‘pandemic’ (and we need look no further than those Reds in the WHO really) they could not have done a better job of harming capitalism. Let’s hope they have not destroyed it utterly. The awful socialist responses employed by so many countries (including our own Liberal government in Canberra of course only served to whet the appetites of statists that a command economy is the solution to everything - when every sensible person surely knows from a long experience of history that it is the answer to nothing – and simply ‘the road to serfdom’. Medically speaking it was also totally wrong: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/08/when-panic-is-mistaken-for-policy-2/ Can I remind you again about Coyote’s Common Sense Solution: http://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2020/08/a-framework-for-thinking-about-lockdowns-and-why-they-are-counter-productive.html PS: I think it is no accident that governments are not doing virus antibody at the same time as they are doing screening tests. This would be very easy to do, though it would add to the cost. However it would disclose that the measures taken had been an abject failure and that some huge percentage of cases (in some countries as high as 90%) had been undetected and caused no ‘harm’ whatsoever. Indeed the overwhelming majority of people had not even noticed they had the disease. Note this salient fact also, hardly anyone dies from coronaviris – only 6%: ‘Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death’: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR28Fr355s4TIug2-Yjz9xuSKSA_oLat-I2LrcoPX_P5R3T44aYAeIEwZQE

30/08/2020: Our Totalitarian State: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/27/name-that-country/ The level of intimidation in Victoria has become more than alarming. Take a look at this. Police want to interview this woman about a Facebook post she made about going for a walk: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/victoria-police-visit-this-womans-home-to-discuss-your-facebook-post.html Can I remind everyone that during previous crises (eg WW2) people were willing to fight and die for our freedoms?

Addendum: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/29/in-victoria-they-make-the-covid-numbers-up-and-even-tell-you-what-theyve-done/ Coyote’s Common Sense Solution: http://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2020/08/a-framework-for-thinking-about-lockdowns-and-why-they-are-counter-productive.html

30/08/2020: Black Lives mattered – how Britain fought the slave trade in the early C19th: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/the-royal-navys-proud-record-on-fighting-the-slave-trade-rule-brittania.html

30/08/2020: The Democrats stand for anarchy: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/if-trump-fans-acted-like-these-leftist-fascists-would-the-media-stay-quiet/news-story/495bbc0454c4c83374b47697cc430e57 & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/media-left-excuses-mostly-peaceful-violence/news-story/898d9959aed41d19820f83021f4ec839 Prediction: They will be eaten alive at the polls. Fear of reprisals: This is what you get when you intimidate people. I have stopped ‘doing’ polls too: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/silent-majority-over-10-trump-voters-wont-admit-preferences-pollsters

29/08/2020: Do you wonder why? Trump’s Approval Rating Soars: https://www.lucianne.com/2020/08/26/trump_approval_soars_to_52_percent_up_with_blacks_and_democrats_42018.html Dem supporters rioting in the streets can only help too: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/racial-unrest-can-only-work-in-donald-trumps-favour/news-story/88dcf6955646ecddb419f91de49e037a

29/08/2020: Who could have known? After all the rioting, the truth is George Floyd Had ‘Fatal Level’ Of Fentanyl In His Body At Time Of Death: https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/26/new-documents-show-george-floyd-had-fatal-level-of-fentanyl-in-his-system/

29/08/2020: Have you noticed Victoria’s ‘Unknown’ Covid cases are not coming down? For example only 34 of Friday’s 113 were from ‘known’ sources, 24 for Thursday’s 113, 47 for Wednesday’s 144, 43 for Tuesday’s 133, 29 for Monday’s 116, 46 for Sunday’s 208, 28 for Saturday’s 182…One would have thought that after over a fortnight of this Stage 4 Lockdown ‘unknown sources’ would have pretty much dropped to zero! After all because of the lockdown ‘tracking’ should be able to prove where these cases are coming from very quickly indeed – but this is clearly not the case. That is worrying to me as it indicates (as does the decline in testing) that people are just refusing to be tested even though they suspect they have the virus and are carrying on with their lives because the State has just had enough of this nonsense. They are also clearly massively breaching the lockdown – else they would not be being infected. Mirboo North Medical Centre have been posting daily updates if someone would like to check my suspicions statistically: https://www.facebook.com/Mirboo-North-Medical-Centre-150760278750224 I suspect (if this is what is happening) cases may flatline then start going up again. It would also mean that the number of real cases has not come down much under say 500. All that money wasted!

28/08/2020: Something is happening here and you do know what it is don’t you Mr Jones: https://switchelphilosopher.blog/2020/08/22/the-holodomor/

28/08/2020: One hopes our defence forces are listening, as we certainly are ‘surrounded and outnumbered’: https://warontherocks.com/2020/08/when-youre-outnumbered-lessons-from-two-british-masters-of-irregular-warfare/?singlepage=1

28/08/2020: Suppose we just ask those elderly folks lying sick in hospital whether they would like to try the HCQ procedure: Dr. Harvey Risch Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale, ‘I conclude the evidence is overwhelming, there is no question that for the people who need to be treated and are treated early, it has a very substantial benefit in reducing risk of hospitalisation or mortality…The evidence in favour of Hydroxychloroquine benefit in high risk patients treated early as out-patients is stronger than anything else I’ve ever studied. So scientifically there is no question whatsoever’ https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/25/sutton-death/

27/08/2020: So after 3 years, what have Trump and his administration accomplished? A real lot. Here’s a list of some of them: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/so-after-3-years-what-have-trump-and-his-administration-accomplished.html

Trump’s Winning Agenda: https://spectator.org/a-potential-landslide-agenda/ One hopes. (Not just not Joe Biden or Kamala Harris - though both are big pluses!) I see Biden is not only coming after your SUV but also your Superannuation. Singing from Shorten’s playbook? What is it with these socialists? He is just as likely to succeed: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2020/08/25/joe-biden-promises-to-take-away-401k-style-retirement-savings-whats-that-mean/#2a446e6d4eb0

27/08/2020: Today is the 78^th anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay where Australian troops were the very first to inflict an enomous defeat on the Japanese. It should be remembered as vividly as Anzac Day (which was after all the opposite): https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E84334

27/08/2020: Do You Notice Something Wrong? Yesterday Victoria (with 113 cases?) tested 13,000 people. One the same day Qld (with 1 case) tested 20,000 people – and said it was not enough! Also in Vic the death toll, number of people in hospital and on ventilators is not coming down consonant with the alleged ‘cases’. Ergo, this lockdown is not working. People are simply refusing to be tested, yet the virus is still spreading. We need to make the cheap treatments (Hyrdoxychloroquine/Ivomec Plus Zinc Plus Antibiotic freely available – instead of banned), sandbag the most vulnerable and get back to business before all is lost. We have already lost (most of) our economy – and our freedom. The virus is also clearly not nearly so deadly as previously claimed – now looking like .004% - (especially if treated early (as above) so there is no justification for continuing with this farrago which is clearly not working (under Andrews) and never going to work under his leadership. At the very least he must go, now: https://www.technocracy.news/cdc-confirms-extremely-low-covid-19-death-rate/?fbclid=IwAR3tlpS3-r8izPDbwvosHvfaibbp8X5hUhIwEy3gzNSDotNrqJZ04qLNGE4 & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-our-doctors-shouldnt-dismiss-possible-covid19-cure/news-story/583acd837a21621da28b62fd66ee4672 If you doubt we have lost our freedom, read this: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/26/do-not-doubt-that-victoria-has-become-a-police-state/ Further reading: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/08/i-didnt-vote-for-tyranny-did-you/ & https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/peter-smith/2020/08/theyve-gone-covid-crazy/

26/08/2020: The first confirmed re-infection with Covid. The good news is that it is five months since his first infection and the second was more mild. This indicates that ‘immunity’ is working, if not perfectly. It also indicates that where the virus has ‘raged’ they likely have a kind ‘herd immunity’ though it does not perfectly protect from (re)infection. We could use this datum to predict exactly how many cases we would have if we opened up - which we must sometime anyway. It also illustrates the importance of developing and utilizing a full arsenal of treatments, particularly cheap treatments such as Hydroxy and Ivomec + Zinc: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/reinfection-and-t-cell-immunity-does-the-common-cold-give-us-protection-against-coronavirus/

26/08/2020: What an absurd law – who are they trying to protect? https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/letusspeak-victoria-blocks-sexual-assault-victims-from-using-real-names/news-story/5273c23f7e2fbe5a0e3dbf6965125326

26/08/2020: News you don’t hear from China: Up to a quarter of a million people are estimated to have died because of the Banqiao Dam failure in 1975 – and it is happening again. Of course 98% of the world’s journalists are Marxists. That might go some way to explaining why the news isn’t: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/23/china-three-gorges-dam-bracing-for-more-flooding/

25/08/2020: WA’s Attorney-General Quigley is no doubt the most retrograde legislator since King John, why we have the Magna Carta which amongst other things expressly forbade the sovereign from stripping private property from free men without just compensation – yet this is exactly what Quigley has done to Palmer (and his shareholders!) Still you wonder why I am so opposed to socialism in all its forms? Please read on: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/23/dont-invest-in-australia/ Of course that’s what it means: ‘Don’t invest in Australia’!

25/08/2020: The perfect ‘syllogism’:

25/08/2020: Dan has extended his ‘emergency’ for another year and in SA they have a two-year virus plan. Of course in neither of these socialist totalitarian visions is the simple expedient of protecting the elderly and making proven treatments available (such as Prof Borody’s - the Doc who cured ulcers). Anyway get yours today: http://covexit.com/australian-gps-can-legally-prescribe-ivermectin-triple-therapy-protocol-professor-borody/?fbclid=IwAR3ZLXwDULkKAvhwaz1toDwpz_5PzRN6g0cf0p-nrl9EoX278UCJaDrqRtE & https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/25/why-are-our-politicians-not-allowing-hcq-to-be-used-in-australia/ & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/coronavirus-but-wheres-the-zinc/news-story/5345c134e1edf161b3b9721d5431a546 & https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/24/hydroxychloroquine-in-covid-19-treatment-actual-usage-in-the-usa/ PS: The safety of these medicines (Hydroxy/Ivomec) has been proven over seventy years. Surely this is preferable to en enforced ‘Godot’ vaccine which is completely unproven? Remember Thalidomide? https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/24/have-these-people-never-heard-of-thalidomide/

24/08/2020: ‘Big fleas have little fleas on their backs to bite’em – and so on ad infinitum’: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59398

24/08/2020: The Parallels between the climate an covid ‘scams’ are instructive. Both are ‘creations’ of the Left (in more ways than one) and vehicles for control, rent seeking, etc). The article makes clear how the ban on Hydroxy/Ivomec works – the Left have ever been willing to murder millions to further their aims, and clearly to pay for their ‘dachas’ too PS: I notice many have bought sea-side dachas/mansions even in defiance of their climate ‘faith’: https://richardsonpost.com/brian-c-joondeph/18079/covid-and-climate-policy/ However a friend alerted me to this: Go Ivermectin: https://www.facebook.com/Mark.M.Aldridge.Independent/videos/10158708671749124

24/08/2020: Kamala Harris was the Sponsor of the Green New Deal and Biden has now endorsed it as a core platform. It would require a radical transformation of society and cost 50% of GDP (its proponents claim). For one thing the automobile would be gone! Now, ‘The latest Gallup poll found that only 1% of US adults consider “climate change/environment/pollution” to be “the most important problem facing this country today.” And ‘Indeed, 57% of them would not be willing to pay more than $1.00 in added electricity charges to fight climate change!’, yet you think that American voters will ditch Trump and endorse this? Nuts!: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/22/the-green-new-deal-means-monumental-disruption/ & https://www.city-journal.org/kamala-harris-california

23/08/2020: Prediction: One will be Clinton – Biden might soon want to distance himself from Bill’s endorsement, but wait a minute, what about ‘sleazy Joe’ himself? I wonder. Interesting times: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8512103/amp/Ghislaine-Maxwell-tapes-two-prominent-politicians-having-sex-minors.html?fbclid=IwAR1G2YtDflwhi9ByL44enXHitu2qRYQkNQLV_VuhtMZhfE0-KTvNNZVYQ9E

23/08/2020: I too have had a ‘brush’ with the Left - having (even) been a member of the Labor Party for a while in the 1970s (I am ashamed to say). Even then they were beyond criticism or dissent (a key reason for my break with them) but they have just become worse and worse. I too expected some to acknowledge once the Wall fell that the excesses of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc were truly evil – and that they were sorry about the 8 million people they (as supporters of communism and opponents of the Vietnam war - which happily I was not) had been accessories in the mass murder of. But they never did. Never will. ‘The always guilt-free Left have awarded themselves “total intellectual impunity”—being Good people they can never do Bad. That they did not deal with their responsibility in supporting one of the most murderous political philosophies in history denies them any essential credibility.’ I now feel that it is my duty to oppose them with every fibre of my being. https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/07-08/the-great-escape/

23/08/2020: Imagine: 6 cents a day of Vitamin D preventing 40% of respiratory deaths: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/wow-vitamin-d-deficiency-may-cause-40-of-respiratory-deaths-in-older-people/

22/08/2020: Imagine Bill Clinton lecturing Trump about the ‘correct way to use the Oval Office’! Tell that to Monica – and Epstein! These Dems are just the most terrible crooks: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/bill-clintons-speech-about-the-proper-way-to-use-the-oval-office.html Some more thoughts about that here: https://richardsonpost.com/howellwoltz/18023/obama-biden-hillary-swamp/ As for Obama, I think this heading says it all: The worst president of my lifetime discusses the best: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/20/the-worst-president-of-my-lifetime-discusses-the-best/ What was there to like about that commie Moslem quisling? Imagine one of Biden’s priorities being re-allowing men back into little girl’s toilets: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/20/bidens-top-priority-allowing-men-back-into-the-girls-toilets/ He is also going to make face masks compulsory from Day 1 of he Presidency. That should go down well!

22/08/2020: Prof Blainey (remember ‘Triumph of the Nomads’?) on what a monstrous fraud ‘Dark Emu’ is – ‘domesticated’ wombats kept in pens. Really!: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-will-abc-use-taxpayers-money-to-promote-bruce-pascoes-fake-history/news-story/2557c9ca121835b36cbdbfcc1d10bd42 I know it is behind a paywall, but this one isn’t: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2020/08/another-load-of-emu-droppings/

22/08/2020: The 1968 Hong Kong Flu killed 1-4 million people world-wide and about 100,000 Americans (so about like Covid 19 really), but they did not even cancel Woodstock! Note also this quote from the Wikipedia article, ‘The death rate from the Hong Kong flu was lower than for other 20th-century pandemics’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_flu I know I caught it and survived. There was no effect on our economy! What snowflakes and incompetents we have in charge today! Of course Covid need not have killed even 10% of these numbers if we used the Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin therapies which are cheaply available to treat it – and lots of Vitamin D and Zinc to prevent it.

21/08/2020: Long Coleoptile Wheat – the new Green Revolution may boost yields by 40%. Take that Global Warming: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/20/global-warming-crop-resilience-aussie-farmer-helps-csiro-develop-long-coleoptile-wheat/

21/08/2020: Fight back: Understanding the imminence of the Marxist victory over everything: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/the-marxists-have-forced-out-the-conservatives-now-theyre-coming-for-the-liberals/

21/08/2020: Andrews is such a liar. The Governor really should sack him, install a caretaker government and call an election (with the Gov no doubt being a Labor Party stooge this is unlikely) but 1% of people were breaching isolation not the 27% Andrews claimed; this is risible. If he had been fining them from the start this also would never have been happening. I fear that now what is happening is that lots of people (half?) are refusing to be tested because they do not want the even more onerous restrictions that testing would impose on them. Of couse this means that there will be more virus out there. It may be ten times as much as the testing reveals anyway. Long since time we rolled out the quite safe and effective treatments/preventatives we have (some for over a decade) such as Hydroxychloroquine &/or Ivomectin + zinc + antibiotic and re-opened the economy: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/rita-panahi-andrews-testing-numbers-game-stacks-the-odds-against-us/news-story/2fa5abf341c5cce3b74175308b1fab97

20/08/2020: The Secret of Fire: Fire lighting is a profound 'secret' which if you do not master, you might come to a time when you do not survive at all because of your ignorance. Take the time and patience to learn to be its master: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/08/19/the-secret-of-fire/

20/08/2020: When folk remedies work: Anglo-Saxon eye salve cuts swathe through bacterial biofilms: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59203

20/08/2020: Gas a Commie Today: We should try this here. I suspect there is more public support for police here too than for demonstrators: https://babylonbee.com/news/portland-police-make-millions-after-offering-citizens-a-turn-throwing-tear-gas

20/08/2020: When at last the leaves fell from the bullshit trees, an apocryphal (but bloody funny) tale: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/08/when-the-leaves-fell-from-the-bullshit-trees/

19/08/2020: DIY Unbreakable Shoe Laces: Make your own unbreakable shoe laces. That way you don’t need to carry a spare. You can buy Aglets (ie ends) cheaply enough A$3.88 per 100 plus 50 ft 2.3 mm black Kevlar line A$24.92 (pictured) to make your own unbreakable shoe laces. You just need to measure the cord accurately, to cut the Kevlar with a hot iron to seal it, crimp the aglets on – and away you go! https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/08/19/diy-unbreakable-shoe-laces/

19/08/2020: ‘If you think this year’s controversy is bad, consider that hydroxychloroquine is given to relatively few people with COVID-19, all sick, many with nothing to lose. It enters the body, and leaves fairly quickly, and has been known to us for decades. COVID vaccines, which advocates will want to be mandatory and given to all people—healthy and not, young and old—are being rushed past their normal safety precautions and regulations, and the typical five-to-10 -year observation period is being waived to get “Operation Warp Speed” done as soon as possible. This is being done with the endorsement of public health officials—the same ones, in many cases who are saying HCQ is suddenly extremely dangerous.’ This essay (by a respected MD) is about the most balanced I have seen regarding the ‘progress’ of therapy against Covid 19: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/science/articles/hydroxychloroquine-morality-tale Particularly liked this, 'He told Paris Match: I am Nietzschean, I am looking for contradiction, trouble to strengthen myself. The worst is the comfort: It makes you silly ... The more humans you have, the less they think differently. The “politically correct,” the “compliant thinking” are only a mass effect, to be avoided, even if it is difficult to resist! ... To follow the herd no brain is needed, legs are sufficient ... I don’t like movements, I run in the opposite direction. In general, that is where there are nuggets.'

19/08/2020: Remember this about the Greens: ‘At the edge of a forest, German soldiers point their guns at rows of naked people who follow the Jewish religion. Among them are young mothers clutching their babies. The shots echo through the woods and the dead bodies fall into the ground. Down the road, while this is happening, their German army comrades are busy establishing nature walks and bird sanctuaries and planting trees. The Nazis conducted horrific experiments on children (I have seen footage so upsetting it can’t be shown on TV) but at the same time they banned medical experiments on animals. The same Nazi monsters who committed crimes of unimaginable barbarity also advocated vegetarianism, organic agriculture, forest preservation and homeopathic healthcare. How can we possibly explain this? What was the connection between the inhuman brutality of the Nazis and their gushing idealization of ‘Nature’? http://www.martindurkin.com/blogs/nazi-greens-inconvenient-history

19/08/2020: About ‘oaths’ and the meaning of ‘words’: Marriage as an institution is redolent with many ancient, tested practices such as the swearing of oaths. Traditionally oaths are/were sworn on that which you hold most sacred – in this case and many others that meant ‘on your life’! That is the origin of the phrase ‘Till death us do part’. You are swearing ‘on your life’. ie ‘on pain of death’ to be true to your word: in this case, ‘I do’! I am living proof that it is not so very hard (and certainly not in the least unpleasant) to remain married for fifty years. Many folks today want to hijack or dilute these ancient customs. This is most unwise. In another example a ‘naturalised’ citizen is better than one simply ‘born and raised’ because the former has sworn a binding oath. Many older Australians swore these oaths at the beginning of every school day though I doubt many under about forty have ever sworn fidelity to their country which has given them so much. Indeed many seem to pride themselves on having just the opposite view. Too many have no loyalty, but only expectations that their country will provide for them: nothing about duty enters their heads at all. The daily oaths my generation swore spoke only of our duties (‘I honour…I salute the flag’ etc) and nothing of our entitlements. We already had our lives after all, as so many not fortunate enough to be Australians had not. ‘Entitlements’ are always provided by the hard work of our fellow citizens: they are always charity. A citizen should avoid (on their life) becoming a recipient of charity. Similarly, the swearing of an oath (on your life) means that you hold that which you are swearing on more precious than your life. New citizens have thought carefully about this. Old citizens should too. We do right to honour our soldiers who have placed their lives between us and our enemies. Those who think otherwise are quislings and traitors, never citizens. Citizenship should be revocable and ostracism should accompany its revocation.

18/08/2020: Vietnam Veteran’s Day: Lest we forget the anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan: https://www.army.gov.au/our-heritage/history/history-focus/battle-long-tan

18/08/2020: Venezuela is such a fine example of what not to do – for example: do not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs; do not give incessant wage increases to bureaucrats and cronies, eschew socialism… https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/17/how-do-you-make-a-wealth-country-poor/

18/08/2020: Through a glass darkly – it is difficult to assess the impact of policies from a distance (whether it be physical or social) but I notice for example that Biden has vowed to transform America’s energy with an all-out war on fossil fuels (and a husge ‘renewable subsidy scheme just at a time when ‘other people’s’ money has long since run out. Of course this is just at a time when the ‘environment’ is rating lowest as an important issue in the public’s mass-mind, now not even getting into the top ten. Shorten already lost an election trying to steal people’s SUVs remember? He also want so destroy suburbia and turn everywhere into clones of the awful democrat run chicagos and detroits which everyone who can has fled – first the whites, then the black middle class. Take a look at Ann Arbor just down the road from empty Detroit. These dated ideas will hopefully lose him the election even if his own bumbling, racism, sexism and choice of a pseudo-black commie bimbo as a running mate do not: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/08/donald-trump-and-his-secretary-of-housing-ben-carson-write-for-the-wall-street-journal.html

18/08/2020: Covid 19: Monoclonal Antibodies sound promising – and we may have them soon: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/08/antibodies-against-the-covid-spike-not-the-shell-predict-survival/

17/08/2020: Exponential Growth: ‘The mass-energy-information equivalence principle will show that information is a physical, dominant, fifth state of matter, and digital bits will outnumber atoms on Earth’ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/08/16/digital-content-on-track-to-equal-half-earths-mass-by-2245/

17/08/2020: Lest we forget - Esssingon Lewis: ‘He formed a syndicate called the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation, which in 1939 built the first Australian military aircraft, a simple, lightly armed trainer-plane called the Wirraway. Later came fighter bomber aircraft that really held their own. It was remarkable that we mass-produced planes before we mass-produced cars,’ https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/16/essington-lewis/

17/08/2020: Our Government’s fake studies against Hyrdoxychloroquine (some where people were deliberately and negligently given potentially (and sometimes really) fatal doses ie 10 times that normally recommended – or the wrong medicine ie one with a similar name (not unlike the US man who mistakenly drink fish tank cleaner) are a disgrace. The efficacy of ivermectin (Ivomec) is similarly being ignored even though it is crystal clear that these two compounds taken in association with the recommended quantity of zinc sulphate are the best ‘cure’ we have yet – and have reduced the death toll where they are being used by 80% or more, especially if taken early in the course of the disease: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/andrew-bolt-morrison-government-banning-hydroxychloroquine-makes-no-sense/news-story/178d6f912298066a4ad529bfcf42ae83 PS: In Vic Andrews has banned doctors from prescribing hydroxychloroquine but you can still get a script for Ivomec (Strolectol), whilst Zinc Sulphate is freely available from online pharmacy suppliers. It is (usually) recommended that people take a broad spectrum antibiotic (Azithromycin) in combination with this therapy (mainly to mop up secondary infections). ie Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice a day + Azithromycin 500 mg + Zinc sulfate 220 mg once a day for 5 days. You will (likely) eventually contract this virus – perhaps even after there is a vaccine (as vaccines are very rarely 100% protective), so you should be prepared to have the best available protection against it. Keeping up your Vitamin D and Zinc levels (combined with social distancing and hygiene) also remain your best defences against contracting it. It certainly can be deadly and/or debilitating, particularly in people with other health issues.

16/08/2020: Lest We Forget. 75^th VP Day. Some question the decision to bomb Horoshima and Nagasaki. You should know the ADF is still trying to recover ‘missing’ soldiers from WW2 such as this hero, Sergeant Leonard Siffleet: https://www.scribd.com/document/386230685/ADF-report-on-the-execution-and-burial-of-Sergeant-Leonard-Siffleet#from_embed

Pictured Leonard With his fiancée Clarice 1941 and on the beach at Ambon 24/10/1943:

16/08/2020: Solving the ME problem! Trump certainly gets things done. Four more years, please https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/israel-uae-agreement-trump-james-carafano

16/08/2020: There goes Private Property – and many other things: This WA Bill is just a shocker. Hopefully the Fed Govt will find a way to quickly squash it: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/08/14/democratic-banana-republic-of-western-australia-part-3/

16/08/2020: Vote Democrat? This should do the job:

15/08/2020: Fuel Follies: Of course you know what this is; it’s a very silly empty fuel container which weighs 5.1 oz or 147 grams. Lots of unwise hikers lug these stupid things around!

Let’s look at it another way. A lightweight bottle to carry alcohol (meths) in might weigh 10-20 grams. My lightest burner weighs 7 grams. (but I usually use one of Tinny’s Gnomes) Perhaps I need a windscreen? That might add 7 grams too – but you will use twice as much fuel whatever you use if you don’t have a windscreen, so let’s ignore it for the sake of the exercise:

17 grams from 147 leaves 130 grams of fuel. A ml of alcohol weighs 0.7893 grams so this 130 grams represents 164 mls I use about 7 mls to boil a cup of water, (4-5 with a cosy -but that would add weight too) so that 164 mls represents 23 cups of coffee. A meal represents 2-3 cups of coffee.

I take about 500 mls of alcohol for all my cooking for a ten day trip, so this 164 mls is more enough for a normal long weekend’s cooking. If you consider the gas stove that I am not carrying (another 85 grams of fuel or 107 mls) you can see that switching to alcohol would equate to this one empty container representing cooked meals for about five days! If you consider the 227 grams (287 mls) of gas you would have had enough fuel (with alcohol (164 + 107 + 287 = 558) for a ten day trip!

Now do you see why I do not use a gas stove. There is also this to consider: it has happened to me (car camping): What f the jet on the gas stove should block up? Unless you are carrying a spare jet 9and a small spanner for replacing it (are you?) the you will be doing no cooking at all!

There is just no similar problem with an alcohol stove. And have you thought about ow explosive a gas canister is? You could easily blow up a truck with one. Just an exploding Bic lighter will pretty much blow your hand off! I know I think of replacing mine with flint and spirit lighters (such as the peanut).

Gas just makes no sense – and when you consider its environmental impact: the fact that it is normally extracted from undersea wells miles offshore, fracking, transport, the risks of environmental disaster etc it surprises me that all the ‘leave no trace’ brigade (of which I am not one) pretty much all use it!

Of course I am getting lazier and lazier (as well as older and older) so I have decided just to carry this 20 gram stove and no fuel at all (most trips).

The Death of the Bird

For every bird there is this last migration:
Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;
With a warm passage to the summer station
Love pricks the course in lights across the chart.

Year after year a speck on the map, divided
By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;
Season after season, sure and safely guided,
Going away she is also coming home.

And being home, memory becomes a passion
With which she feeds her brood and straws her nest,
Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart’s possession
And exiled love mourning within the breast.

The sands are green with a mirage of valleys;
The palm-tree casts a shadow not its own;
Down the long architrave of temple or palace
Blows a cool air from moorland scarps of stone.

And day by day the whisper of love grows stronger;
That delicate voice, more urgent with despair,
Custom and fear constraining her no longer,
Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air.

A vanishing speck in those inane dominions,
Single and frail, uncertain of her place,
Alone in the bright host of her companions,
Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space,

She feels it close now, the appointed season:
The invisible thread is broken as she flies;
Suddenly, without warning, without reason,
The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies.

Try as she will, the trackless world delivers
No way, the wilderness of light no sign,
The immense and complex map of hills and rivers
Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design.

And darkness rises from the eastern valleys,
And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath,
And the great earth, with neither grief nor malice,
Receives the tiny burden of her death.

01/08/2020: How long do butterflies and moths live? Longer than I thought anyway: https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/faq/how-long-do-butterflies-and-moths-live

01/08/2020: A Phone in Your Fob: If you work outdoors doing physical work as I have done most of my life you will realise that most smart phones are quite unsuitable. It is just about impossible to carry them in such a way that they will not break. I used to carry my small (4″) Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini in a padded pouch suspended from my belt but I still broke screens/phones.

The fob pocket was invented just for the purpose of protecting a pocket watch in these circumstances – so you need a phone which will fit in your fob. Fortunately there are a few such.

This is my Atom in a pair of very worn farm jeans. As you can see from the attached mud in the lanyard hole it has done some pretty hard work around the farm helping build fences , deliver lambs, rebuild vehicles & etc. There is a wonderful new model. Read More: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/07/31/a-phone-in-your-fob/

01/08/2020: The Donald: He really is a nice man – and alert, intelligent sensitive, good-humoured…Pretty much everything Biden is not. No wonder Biden won’t debate him, and the ‘fake news’ spends so much effort trying to demonise him. This is a marvelous interview. It will change your mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1260&v=vRWr9dI8-Jw&feature=emb_title

01/08/2020: Atishoo Akbar: Yes, I think this is shameful too (especially after the outbreak in Melbourne (and who was responsible for it). Instead of outlawing Islam and ejecting its every adherent from the country (something we will have to do eventually, believe me – if we are to survive), exceptions are made for Islam that could not be made for Mothers’ Day, Easter, Anzac Day VE Day, etc, etc. How much must we kow-tow to this vile creed? Not at all! Never! https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/07/nsw-government-gives-auburn-mosque-coronavirus-exemption-400-people-allowed-in-for-eid-al-adha.html

31/07/2020: Latest from the Gulag: Hydroxychloroquine: We have a safe harmless ‘cure’ which has been used by hundreds of millions of people for over 70 years yet just when we need it, Dan bans it, but forces old people to die in misery. He has already killed nearly a hundred Victorians. He should be arraigned for mass murder: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/07/anyone-know-why-this-order-is-in-place.html PS: You have to take it in association with zinc though: its effect is in transporting zinc within the cell to kill viruses. This is why it appeared ineffective in some trials. the antibiotic is because so many people succumb to secondary (lung) infections. Ivomec also seems to have proven effective anti-viral properties which improve your chances of survival. as a prophylactic you need to keep up your Vitamin D3 and Zinc levels. these are your best chance of being able to throw off (lung) infections you encounter.

31/07/2020: The Don going in to bat for free speech; the power of these tech companies certainly needs to be constrained: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/censorship-is-weapon-1-trump-orders-online-tech-giants-to-stop/

31/07/2020: Government. You wanted it. I have long lamented that I did not but…we have three levels of Government in Australia (at least two too many); we have over a million public servants, too many of them paid over $100K per year - more than twice what I have ever earned by hard work. We also have literally millions at the moment who are being paid (handsomely) not to work, while Della and I struggle to get our new farm fence finished against this year’s lambing season alone – but are now supposed to wear masks while we do if we are on the outside of the fence. The country also has 10,619 ‘recovered’ Covid 19 cases (as of this morning). Way back in February I argued that we needed to ‘manpower’ these people into treating people in the gravest danger of the virus. Nonetheless hundreds of elderly people have been allowed to suffer without any care at all (and many to die) in nursing homes in Victoria. I said at the time that the death penalty was abolished that it was a very bad decision. Why have I spent over fifty years of my life feeding and clothing such people?

30/07/2020: ‘Green steel’ at four times the price. Just like other idiotic green policies, this one should also be righteously rejected – when will they declare an ‘open season’ on these harmful idiots? https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/28/david-bidstrup-guest-post-green-steel/

30/07/2020: So, an ‘asylum seeker’ burned down Nantes’ Cathedral. Who could have guessed? I hope he is hanged, drawn and quartered – at least sent back to whatever squalid hell-hole he crawled out of after serving a rather nasty sentence anyway: https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/07/rwandan-asylum-seeker-admits-to-setting-fire-to-french-cathedral-news.html

30/07/2020: David Dungay richly deserved to be executed, long before he died from his diabetes: ‘Dungay already had a lengthy criminal record, including robberies with violence and a weapon, before he was jailed for the attempted rape of his girlfriend, just 16. He’d tried to sodomise her, then beat her with a broomstick, chased her with a brick and punched her in the head. Dungay was also jailed over an armed robbery. He and three mates broke into a house, where they found a 61-year-old man, his sick wife and his 91-year-old mother in law. They bashed and stabbed the man so badly that he needed 27 stitches…’ Maybe you would like to invite folks like this into your home or become friends with them? https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-black-lives-matter-protesters-ignore-truth-on-david-dungays-death/news-story/7778af710a21e96dbcf8be1d9a3348ca

29/07/2020: Frydenberg is perfectly right to champion Thatcher and Reagan’s economics. The crazy Keynesian spending we are seeing in the idiotic response to this virus is destroying the capitalist world’s economies (as China intended it would): https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/27/josh-and-switz-sitting-in-a-tree/

29/07/2020: If you believe in free speech find a few bucks to help Peter Ridd’s fight in the High Court, and write a letter to the government urging they do something to constrain JCU and the like institutions who think they can commit intellectual fraud with impunity: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/peter-ridd-will-take-it-to-the-high-court/

29/07/2020: BLM are completely unwilling to ‘own’ the enormous problem of black violence and crime. Yes, there is a reason why ‘aborigines’ are ‘over-represented’ in custody and other anti-social metrics: their behaviour is exponentially worse than the rest of the population’s (eg ‘the appalling rates of abuse that see Indigenous women 35 times more likely to be hospitalised due to family violence than other Australian women’). This is their problem, their fault. No-one else’s. The rest of Australia has funded them as a ‘special’ class for over 200 years and it has done no good at all. As a class ‘aborigines’ need to be abolished. ‘They’ must be simply subsumed as ‘people’ into the rest of the community with identical rights and duties. No special deals. No special government departments, funding, etc. Government and public response ought to be based only on need, not ‘race’. “The biggest hindrance to this reduction are distractions such as Coon cheese, treaties, preliminary voices, BLM lies, and accusations of racism for openly raising the topic.” says Jacinta Price: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/rita-panahi-activists-strangely-silent-about-indigenous-violence-victims/news-story/4867251c828473a7862b97c814a937aa

28/07/2020: Some interesting examples of doing without the police (including Victoria’s 1923 police strike). PS. We don’t want this: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/15/doing-without-the-police/

28/07/2020: A Brief History of Slavery: https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/07/slaves-come-in-all-colours/

28/07/2020: Imagine contemplating cancelling Aristotle because of one view he expressed about slavery (even though he had been a slave himself!) Gone would be the entire underpinning of logic, philosophy, science and so much more: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/why-are-we-even-contemplating-canceling-aristotle/

27/07/2020: Just take a look at this lightning: https://www.drroyspencer.com/2020/07/lightning-strike-video-close-up/ BTW Did you realize that the longest lightning bolt yet seen was over 700 miles?

27/07/2020: In the real world (think advanced countries like Senegal) you can get the results back from a (more reliable) Covid 19 saliva test while you wait (c 10 minutes). In Stalag Victoria the results come in after you are no longer infective (c one week) . Sack Dan!

27/07/2020: Watching the Three Gorges Dam Burst and Flood China. No it hasn’t happened yet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjHWkCdZdOE&feature=emb_title

26/07/2020: Paleology is full of surprises: There is increasing evidence of a human presence in the America’s before the last Ice Age c 30,000BC: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/25/humans-inhabited-north-america-in-the-depths-of-the-last-ice-age-but-didnt-thrive-until-the-climate-warmed/

26/07/2020: Is this the world’s most fanciful ‘renewable energy’ project? https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/23/david-bidstrup-guest-post-singapore-sting/

26/07/2020: We already have the cure (Zelenko’s) I first referenced back in February (and Ivomectin, likewise). We can save millions of lives (and whole economies). All this is cheap and effective if implemented early as with any good medical practice/solution. Could we please stop playing games and just use common sense: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/07/letter-to-president-trump-from-us-doctor-behind-hydroxychloroquine-study-urges-widespread-adoption-o.html

25/07/2020: Get on with it and fine the pants of these people Andrews, you tosser: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/coronavirus-australia-conspiracy-theorist-slammed-over-dumb-stunt/news-story/cbed06cc67db8a8bff8e30b5c46970fc

25/07/2020:

25/07/2020: The hottest time in the Christian era were during the Roman Empire. Sea surface temperature (even) was 2C warmer – all this without C02. I am so over the greenie leftist alarmists and all their expensive statist ‘solutions’: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/hottest-summers-in-the-last-2000-years-were-during-roman-times/ here is the ice core data to prove the point: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/24/ancient-temperatures/

25/07/2020: The Anti Free Speech Movement is Just Horrifying. I simply have to oppose it with every fibre of my being. I know this will and does involve me in many nasty attacks, but so be it. The right and duty to say what you think is just too important to lose because of bullies. I will continue to call a spade a bloody shovel: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/23/the-media-is-now-opinion-checking/

24/07/2020: Unihertz Jelly 2: I have had their Atom phone which I am delighted with for a couple of years now. It is just great to have a phone in your fob pocket. This new one has a slightly bigger screen which will be appreciated, more ROM, is still dual SIM but now expandable with a microSD card. To me this is the ultimate phone! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jellyphone/jelly-2-worlds-smallest-android-10-4g-smartphone?ref=thanks-share&fbclid=IwAR0nS9JJXF6xhPBAIXZeVjAQNKugXUbtQIPUc0X7DCs_9SAlfbsiFsFHxYs

24/07/2020: The Lees/Falconio ‘Crime’ #3: Having watched the recent doco (‘Murder in the Outback’ and read several accounts of the ‘incident’ I am not convinced that NTPol established that a crime had been committed as Joanne Lees described. So far as I can see we have almost exclusively her unsupported word about its existence but contradicted by certain salient irrefutable facts. The veracity of her ‘word’ should also be measured against the fact that she did indeed lie under oath at the trial about details concerning her affair with Nick Ridley. What are the other contradictory facts?

First, there were no footprints other than Lees at the crime scene. No man’s and no dog’s. This was in dry soft country which takes a print well and was examined by four blacktrackers the next day who found none. Just taken alone, this is impossible.

Second is the blood. There was just not enough blood consistent with someone having been shot and left to bleed out on the tarmac whilst the assault apparently took place. I have to put sick sheep down from time to time, and of course I have shot many deer. The amount of blood produced is normally what you would expect if you kicked over a 4 litre red paint can. That is a pool half a square metre or so and half a centimeter deep!. The small amount of blood on the road is more consistent with a small cut or nose bleed – or with a deliberately self-inflicted wound intended to leave a small amount of blood for the purpose of establishing the ‘verisimilitude’ of a concocted story. The telling thing about the blood residue is that no firearms propellant residue is associated with it. In the case of a gunshot at close proximity this is just impossible. When a gun is fired distinctive chemical traces are propelled outwards at over 1,000 feet per second. There is no way to conceal this.

Third, the absence of the assailant’s DNA at the crime scene (and on the Kombi) is extraordinary. If someone assaulted and man-handled her as Lees described his DNA would have been all over her (everywhere he touched her, and on everything he handled) – not the single tiny speck which might easily have been acquired accidentally from some object such as a chair (eg at the Red Rooster café) which both had visited separately hours before.

Lastly her (shifting) descriptions of his vehicle, the dog and the offender. The vehicle initially had a space between the seats through which she was thrust into the back of the vehicle. This is very unusual, but I have seen it. Later she changed that description meaning that she was taken around to the back of the vehicle where she failed to see Falconio’s body. Really? The dog was definitely brown and white. Murdoch’s dog was black and white. Initially the offender was (much) younger with a different build, hair colour, facial hair and most compellingly well under 6’.

The truly striking thing about Murdoch (apart from his very distinctive build) which no-one could fail to notice (particularly if you were being assaulted by him) is that he is barely under 7’!

My guess is that she and Falconio ‘cooked up’ the whole story together (for the purposes of insurance fraud/publicity money – who knows? She has made around a million out of it, and who knows how much insurance money went to Falconio in some foreign country?

They also clearly had an accomplice/s to spirit Falconio away. Either the person Lees was seen talking to at a roadhouse earlier (which she denied – another lie) or the folk in the red car. There were three men altogether in the red car. If one assumes one was Falconio then the others were there to drive the red car and the ute which Falconio was later seen driving by two reliable witnesses in Bourke. So there are four people out there who know what happened, though Murdoch is not one of them. I would guess that the strange behaviour the truck driver noticed concerning the red car’s lights were that they were being used to light Falconio’s way back from planting the Kombi in the bush – also why only his and Lees’ DNA were on it. As soon as the truck driver arrived all jumped in the red car and sped off even though he spoke to them. Strange and suspicious behavior, and clearly somehow involved in the ‘incident’.

NTPol’s involvement in ‘creating’ the crime don’t put them above suspicion either. The fact that an unassisted police constable ‘visited’ the scene weeks later and managed to ‘find’ objects which had been ‘missed’ by the forensic team and four blacktrackers beggars belief. Once they had a match to the only (stranger) DNA present (the tiny speck on the back of her shirt) from Murdoch’s brother (whose DNA was on file, police set about to entrap him – and ‘colluded’ with a known criminal and liar to do so. They also clearly contaminated and mishandled key ‘evidence’ such as the manacles, and botched the photo ID process. The whole case hardly covers police in glory.

In any case Murdoch has already served more than a life sentence (now 16 years) for a crime which it seems to me never actually occurred. This is more than enough whatever happened. He should be released immediately.

24/07/2020: Apparently there are ‘millions’ of casualties in China’s floods. I don’t know how reliable this is, but it is obviously pretty awful – even more awful if it does not bring about the end of communist rule there: https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChinaFloods?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1285549098641260544%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.michaelsmithnews.com%2F&src=hashtag_click

24/07/2020: Black Lives Matter must go ahead because…‘Chronic diabetic Dungay registered four consecutive dangerously high blood-sugar counts on the day of his death and had to be restrained from eating the biscuits lest they kill him. He wasn’t executed for hogging the Iced Vo-Vos. Forcibly sedated for his own good, Dungay died of cardiac arrhythmia during the commotion. A tragic event that could have been avoided had the 26 year-old not been convicted and imprisoned for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, aggravated attempted rape and robbery in company (home invasion). Deputy State Coroner, Derek Lee, refused to accept submissions recommending manslaughter charges against the five officers involved. Dungay’s death is being used to prosecute a war against Australian society.’ https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/23/anarchy/

23/07/2020: Andrews will force you to wear a mask when you are out and about by yourself nowhere near anyone else but he will not bring the full force of the law against those who knowingly infect others. The man is a bastard!

23/07/2020: Frozen in time – an interesting mystery solved: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59146

23/07/2020: A horrible tragedy for free speech: I believe the government should act first against JCU then second to ensure what ought to be a common law right let along an academic right. Too many ‘rights’ in this post, but what the decision is cementing is the ‘right’ to a University enforcing falsehood – which is just what it has done. Truth certainly should win out in the end. The law ought never be used to suppress it.: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/ridd-appeal-jcu-spent-a-fortune-to-win-the-case-and-trash-its-own-reputation/

22/07/2020: Nantes: Christians Under Siege Throughout the World – the Moslem terror continues: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/19/christians-under-siege-throughout-the-world/

22/07/2020: The Terrible Things People Do to Each Other - All Lives matter: The Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Channon_Christian_and_Christopher_Newsom

22/07/2020: Has the Labor Party (at last) seen the light about ‘climate change’ ie that it is rubbish: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/20/another-labor-split-on-climate-and-energy/

21/07/2020: Forced Organ Harvesting in China is as just about bad as anything the Nazis did: https://quillette.com/2020/01/03/bloody-harvest-how-everyone-ignored-the-crime-of-the-century/

21/07/2020: Falconio: Too many holes in Lees’ story and the case against Murdoch. He has already served 16 years for a ‘crime’ which might never have occurred. It is long enough. He should be released. The key thing to me is that four blacktrackers could find no evidence that any other person (or dog) had been present at the crime scene (apart from Lees). I can assure you (after a lifetime of hunting – 65+ years), that if there had been a dog present I would have found its tracks – and so would an aboriginal tracker, who would be an even better hunter than I am. Therefore the only ‘evidence’ that a crime had occurred was Lees’ testimony – and she lied on oath during the trial about her affair with Nick Riley. Normally such perjury would be enough to dismiss all her uncorroborated testimony: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/crimeinfocus/peter-falconio-murder-questions-that-remain-a-mystery/news-story/394c54fd3a5de5ec4d8b0f0e442a4cd2

21/07/2020: Covid 19, the ‘Magic Bullet’ – Interferon is loking very good (80% efficacy) in this trial – maybe add it to your store of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, etc if you could get your hands on it: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/interferon-beta-reduced-risk-of-severe-covid-by-80/

21/07/2020: DIY Roll Up Hobo Stove or Windscreen: I made this last night out of some aluminium flashing. The aluminium will most likely not stand up to the intense heat of a fire for long, but as a prototype/proof of concept I am happy with it. Some .5mm (soft) stainless steel foil has arrived this morning in the mail so I will be able to try that soon instead.

I may even need a harder stainless steel or even titanium. It took me less than an hour to make on (a piece of plywood so as not to damage) the kitchen table after dinner.

I have made this (exactly) just wider than my 1100 ml pot so that as little heat as possible escapes and so that I can make a carbon fibre cosy to conserve heat when I am burning alcohol in it (such as with one of Tinny’s Gnomes). Preliminary results show a saving of at least a third in fuel usage! I have ordered some fire-resistant thread (aramid) to sew the cosy up with.

Because it is a cylinder it will press up against the inside of the pot (it fits completely inside) so that it takes up next to no space. It doubles as a wood stove and windscreen. This prototype weighs exactly 40 grams. I can see that the .5mm stainless steel one will weigh considerable less, probably less than an ounce (~30 grams)!

It would be easy to include a further piece of the same material in the pot to protect the ground and create a dry fire-lighting floor as the height of the is stove is greater than its diameter: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/07/20/diy-roll-up-hobo-stove-or-windscreen/

20/07/2020: Finnsheep: If you have read this blog regularly you will realise that I have been a farmer for many years. For the last few decades a sheep farmer. And more specifically Finnsheep, but not just any Finnsheep. These sheep are the result of forty years of very careful, very practical sheep breeding. I believe they are the best Finnsheep, and possibly the best sheep anywhere in the world: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/07/18/finnsheep/

Our aim has been to produce a sheep which will successfully raise 3-4 good lambs every lambing on pasture alone and in every kind of weather – and we have succeeded! At the same time we selected the sheep to produce 4 kilograms or more of soft long fine wool per shearing. This has never been done before. You can find out (much) more about our sheep on my main sheep page here: finnsheep.com

20/07/2020: Nearly 7%! It is a nasty virus. We should try to eliminate it if we can. Donald Trump is simply wrong about its ‘harmlessness’. The stats do not bear this out. They have remained much the same throughout (despite ‘better’ treatment). USA: deaths/cases (143233/3888153) = 3.68% or deaths/recovered 148233/1798932 = 7.96%; world: deaths/cases 608314/14618111) = 4.16% deaths/recovered (608314/8723723) = 6.97% - obviously some of the ‘’cases’ will go on to die, so the deaths/recovered stat says it all! Nearly 7%! https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ A sign of hope though: It has been around six months since large numbers of folk contracted it in China. Since then there have been very few (if any) reported cases of re-infection which indicates that ‘immunity’ lasts at least six months, ie twice per year vaccination would prevent nearly 100% of cases/ deaths! We can expect the cost of such vaccination to come down to less than $2 per person per year probably. Some of the vaccines look as if they might be rolled out before the end of this year as well. We may still be going to NZ (or Qld) next year! PS: Even amongst ‘young’ health care workers (taking all precautions, and with the best medical assistance) the death rate is 0.5%: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/death-rate-amongst-infected-us-healthcare-personnel-running-at-0-5/ The problem for us here in Oz is that we must eliminate it very quickly. We simply cannot afford to have the economy destroyed (any more).

20/07/2020: Wonnangatta Murders #15: An interesting item on the ABC - Russell's reported earlier 'altercation' a year earlier with the 'Button Man' is a revelation - as is the statement that he had also camped at the button man’s camp on the trip previous to their disappearance): https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-19/how-four-people-disappeared-without-trace-in-victorian-mountains/12455124?nw=0&pfmredir=sm&fbclid=IwAR0xXWGgMKtgUixrO8VQoDgWnfiay7Hww35o-i12Dz_pk6gq-3KoAzmhLik

19/07/2020: We have the planes sitting idle. We have the airline staff. Now is the time to rid ourselves of the people who really don’t want to be Ausralians. How long would it really take?

19/07/2020: Maybe you wonder why the police sometimes have to shoot ‘suspects’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=52&v=aXpYqjKd8cE&feature=emb_title

19/07/2020: At least Princess Anne is sane – pity she wasn’t the oldest child: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/07/princess-anne-sticks-it-up-crazy-charles-over-his-climate-change-greenie-madness.html

18/07/2020: The climate modelers’ ultimate ‘get out of gaol free’ card’. Whatever happens (including global cooling) we can’t be wrong. Oh dear: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/climate-modelers-can-be-wrong-for-the-next-thirty-years-and-still-be-right/

18/07/2020: When you think of Xi remember this about Chairman Mao: He said ‘in 1957 upon the 50^th anniversary of the Russian Revolution that a nuclear war could be won by the Communist Bloc, even if it led to the deaths of half the population of the world: ‘Half dies, half lives — but imperialism would be razed to the ground and the whole world would become socialist’’. This is Macbeth on steroids! As with the appalling death cult, Islam communism has always and ever will be about death, not life. The more dead the more ‘purity’ has been produced! The only question is whether Xi’s regime implodes before it visits some alarming calamity on the world. At the moment he does not seem particularly troubled that his policies are actually hurting China and the Chinese people (who have long been inured to suffering). The people of Hong Kong have been showing that their ‘patience’ with suffering is very nearly at an end however. The West really should make a strenuous effort to bribe the Red Army to defect, to step aside and allow regime change to take place (perhaps it already has). Seventy years of tyranny is more than enough! PS: I imagine Xi to be just the right age to have been a leading member of the ‘Red Guards’ who butchered so many millions in the 1960s. Interestingly the first ‘Mao’ was the leader of the Taiping rebellion which murdered 20-30 million people. The second ‘Mao’ held the first to be an exemplar! For himself. And went on to murder over 100 million! Such monsters! https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/china/2020/07/xi-jinpings-gambit-not-so-inscrutable/

18/07/2020: Black Lives matter? Kids in alleged rape of boy, 5, on Cape York (from today’s ‘Australian’) ‘A five-year-old boy was allegedly gang-raped on a beach by other children from a remote Indigenous community on Cape York this month…A study, headed by then Griffith University professor Stephen Smallbone, into sexual abuse in several Indigenous communities in north Queensland was so shocking it was kept secret for more than three years.The Smallbone report, released in 2016, found that sexual offences in Aurukun — just south of Napranum and with many familial and traditional links — were reported at a rate 6.6 times higher than the norm in the state between 2001 and 2012. The mean age of victims was 14…The study also reported that the incidence of sexually transmitted disease — mainly syphilis — was a staggering 56 times the state average, including the infection of 29 children younger than 10. Police could decide against formal charges and go instead for the restorative justice process if they assessed it would be difficult to prove an offence, for instance due to the age of those involved. The Queensland government says online that restorative justice “is an internationally recognised evidence-based response to criminal behaviour...“We are using restorative justice processes to reduce an overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the justice system.” Wow!

17/07/2020: Those early men were amazingly clever, as this delicate hand axe illustrates. The fact that they managed to cross the Wallace Line (in Indonesia) nearly a million years ago shows that they could build sea-going ships back then, which certainly implies many complex intellectual achievements including language (for complex co-operation) and no doubt story-telling and history. I think it is only a matter of time before their remains are also found in Australia. Fossilisation is a very haphazard process. What then becomes of absurd claims by current groups to be the ‘original’ inhabitants (and therefore requiring ‘special’ treatment or status? Well, their destruction of the previous pygmy inhabitants I wrote about yesterday proves that they were not. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/59092 & https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/history-wars/2002/06/the-extinction-of-the-australian-pygmies/

17/07/2020: This is the only way forward if you want a ‘carbon-free’ future: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/15/new-ontario-power-record-895-days-reliable-uninterrupted-24x7-zero-carbon-power/

17/07/2020: According to the Smithsonian (no less) this is what’s wrong about ‘being white’! I can’t find a single thing wrong myself. This is the poster-child par excellence of the inmates being in charge of the asylum:

16/07/2020: New population forecasts are more hopeful than those when I was growing up which saw population rise as inexorable and the world’s population out-massing the earth in the next few centuries. Clearly that couldn’t happen. None of the demographers foresaw the effect of capitalism and democracy as suppressors of population growth though. The stabilization and gradual decline of the population will be good news for wilderness and wildlife which are already benefiting from this phenomenon in the richer countries such as Europe, Japan, North America, Australia etc where huge tracks of once agricultural land have been returned to nature. ‘Rewilding’ has its problems though and needs to be more carefully managed. For example in Portugal they have found that the Iberian lynx (a very rare critter indeed) actually did better in conjunction with peasant farmers and worse in rewilded areas: https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/global-population-to-peak-at-2064-before-heading-into-inexorable-decline/news-story/351620157a9cca2cf15922dcf294db6a

16/07/2020: Absolutely. Stan Grant is not a ‘race victim’. In fact I am old enough to remember when he was a ‘white man’ and had white skin too, not the colour he has ‘painted’ on now. You can look back though some old photos of him to see what I mean. Why it was only a handful of years ago that SBS started up this weird ‘black face’ make-up game. Plenty of other ‘aboriginal’ (and other) people before Stan were outstanding successes in life (because of their own internal qualities and good fortune) and plenty more will be again. This victim/blaming ‘game’ is just wrong and indeed racist twaddle: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-why-stan-grant-must-stop-playing-the-victim-card/news-story/d88691890052db6b27cef85c7854e21f

16/07/2020: A narrow (but crucial) victory for civilisation in Poland: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/15/duda-wins-but-swords-are-still-drawn-for-civilisation/

15/07/2020: Doubts about ‘aboriginal history’: Present day ‘aborigines’ were clearly not the ‘first Australians’. Note for example a line of deer in the ‘Bradhsaw Paintings’ or a prehistoric ship with a rudder, or the (recent C20th) existence of a ‘race’ of pygmies on Cape York. Confecting history to support political grievance and alter public policy is dangerous stuff: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/history-wars/2002/06/the-extinction-of-the-australian-pygmies/ & http://www.convictcreations.com/aborigines/bradshaws.htm & http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/bradshaws/introduction.php & http://www.convictcreations.com/aborigines/floranadfauna.html & https://cairnsnews.org/2018/10/26/republish-dreamtime-a-cruel-delusion-of-british-anthropologists/?wref=tp&wref=tp

15/07/2020: Nic Cater makes several good points. I said several times way back in Jan-Feb that we could not afford to spend $100,000 each (or any similar sum of money) saving my life or similar lives. At the time we already had proven safe treatments such as Ivermectin and Hydroxylchloroquine etc which would have saved 90%+ of the lives we have lost since then (but the medical Left who have been in charge - think the commies in WHO) have (still) refused to use them; all this without any economic destruction, let alone the shredding of our liberties! https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/coronavirus-we-are-locking-down-the-economy-and-our-future/news-story/ffa5e56159233413f48f1b560767c55d?fbclid=IwAR0Z-7-qZnNbViBoaAjLAF04R7C4zaeTOZ8zVz-2KhqjJd2bZlftX1q5Ojo

15/07/2020: So it was Whitlam (the Republican) and not Kerr who cried ‘Save me Mommy’! Such a bombastic and incompetent man. No wonder he lost the 1975 election in such a landslide -and the economy did not fully recover until around 1983 from the destruction he and his team of fools had wrought. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/kerr-letters-expose-gough-whitlam-as-the-republican-sellout/news-story/ba51bac106bb0c51e41a898a219b973e

14/07/2020: Quote of the day: Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. — Milton Friedman

14/07/2020: How Cholesterol Experts Were Wrong about fat: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/for-80-years-cholesterol-experts-said-eat-less-fat-but-they-never-had-any-evidence/

14/07/2020: Covid 19: Bring on the sheep drench: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/more-cheap-potential-covid-treatments-ivermectin-saves-50/

13/07/2020: Quote of the week: ‘A Government Department is the nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on earth.’ - Ronald Reagan

13/07/2020: Were there links between (financial) crooks in the Vatican and Vicpol’s persecution of George Pell? You bet there were. There is even more financial corruption than child molestation corruption to yet be revealed here: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/vatican-scandal-what-pell-tried-to-fight-before-his-fall/news-story/072d1b4e072365f4c65565e03aee55b7

13/07/2020: David Leyonhjelm on the role of the police force - always interesting reading: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/11/david-leyonhjelm-guest-post-the-problem-with-the-police/#more-124614 Sir Robert Peel's nine principles of policing were as follows:

To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.
To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfill their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect.
To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing co-operation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws.
To recognise always that the extent to which the co-operation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives.
To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life.
To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public co-operation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective.
To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the State, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty.
To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

12/07/2020: Falconio Again: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/crimeinfocus/peter-falconio-murder-joanne-lees-stepdad-says-bradley-john-murodch-is-innocent/news-story/126d6d963e3a206f9956e6549689b82e New 2020 Channel Four four part doco ‘Murder in the Ourback: The Falconio and Lees Mystery’ about this available here and there, eg Pirate Bay. Murdoch was convicted on the basis of a single tiny piece of his DNA he almost certainly left at an Alice Springs Red Rooster Lees visited shortly after he left it and on the basis of a very blurry photo of someone at least 4’ shorter than him at a roadside servo. If he had assaulted her as she claimed his DNA would have been all over her and it just wasn’t. Otherwise there are just so many weird things about this ‘murder’ including highly reliable sightings of Falconio days after his supposed death. Lees was clearly lying to police (and it is also clear they thought so too). She also lied under oath while giving testimony at Murdoch’s trial (There is proof of this). Her version of the ‘events’ beside the Stuart Highway are not believable. For example, she claimed that her assailant and his dog searched for her ‘for hours’ adjacent to the highway, yet four experienced police black-trackers were unable to find any tracks at all apart from her own. She also changed her story a number of times and especially her description of her assailant and his vehicle – statements given under oath. You should obtain copies of this series and watch it. Very compelling viewing. I have no doubt that Murdoch is not a pleasant character. If the roles were reversed and an ugly person such as him had been ‘murdered’ by an attractive woman such as her she would never have been convicted. The NT Police have got this one wrong just as they did the Chamberlain case, and as it turns out on exactly the same dodgy DNA processes. He has already served 16 years for a crime he should not have been convicted of, and should be released. It is certain his ‘guilt’ was not proved ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Peter_Falconio

12/07/2020: Should the ‘Black Hills’ be renamed? Anyway who stole them? Imagine being given a billion dollars ‘compensation’ for something you stole! https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/07/08/will-whoever-stole-the-black-hills-please-return-them/

12/07/2020: ‘Someone’ blew up Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility. Completely destroyed. Good work Bibi: https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/07/09/satellite-photos-show-irans-main-centrifuge-assembly-hall-destroyed/

11/07/2020:

11/07/2020: Dan the Man – no need for an inquiry; this is how it shambled: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/08/even-if-you-already-understood-daniel-andrews-is-an-incompetent-fool-wait-till-you-read-this/ & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/how-a-catalogue-of-failures-turned-victoria-into-a-virus-timebomb/news-story/da01b73b37ce3c88eb18c3f8c73bb15d

11/07/2020: Our BOM as ‘cancel culture’ heroes make strenuous efforts to delete Australia’s clearly hottest day ever officially recorded way back in 1909. Why? You guess: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/hottest-day-recorded-and-deleted-in-australia-was-51-7-in-bourke-in-1909/ We can see the same sort of thing elsewhere eg in the US with this 1913 high temperature record: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/10/death-valley-high-temperature-record-of-july-10-1913/

11/07/2020: Meanwhile: Temperature Hits 100 Degrees Above Arctic Circle, Just Like 100 Years Ago: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/23/climate-change-temperature-hits-100-degrees-above-arctic-circle-just-like-100-years-ago/ But two weeks later it is snowing in summer in the very same place: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/07/remember-when-we- were-told-the-arctic-is-on-fire-and-we-should-all-be-terrified-its-snowing-there-now/

10/07/2020: In Praise of Empires – what an important an insightful essay: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/07-08/in-praise-of-empires/

10/07/2020: Conrad Black is right; the media (class) is determinedly counter-culture, anti-capitalist – frankly wicked and unhinged. The only hope is that Trump (despite his flaws) wins a a second term. Else, I feel the western world is doomed: https://www.nysun.com/national/press-now-plumbs-its-own-depths-of-depravity/91183/

10/07/2020: If we have to have this pandemic it is good that it is becoming less deadly. In the US the death rate has plunged 90% in two months: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/07/not_dying_is_bad_for_headlines_.html

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/07/compare-and-contrast-us-daily-new-covid-cases-with-daily-deaths.html This is why: https://reason.com/2020/07/06/as-covid-19-cases-surge-daily-deaths-and-the-case-fatality-rate-continue-to-fall/ and another one: Restrictions on Hydroxychloroquine Contribute to the COVID-19 Cases Surge: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/05/hypothesis-restrictions-on-hydroxychloroquine-contribute-to-the-covid-19-cases-surge/

09/07/2020:

09/07/2020: Meanwhile, A Beautiful flight over an icy crater on Mars: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-mars-footage-let-s-you-take-a-flight-over-the-korolev-crater-on-mars/amp?fbclid=IwAR23Qtl8YwjV2w3jc5T7x5uzymrfSmCMTd2r84ndLEQIk-8lgqH1ytGZxW0

09/07/2020: The Three Gorges Dam is now at serious risk. Poor Wuhan (20% already under water). Regime change anyone? http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/watching-the-three-gorges-dam/

09/07/2020: The Tyranny of Cancel Culture: ‘The reaction to Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech has provided a fascinating insight into contemporary wokeness, into the outlook of those convinced that they are in possession of all the correct thoughts and that they must now cleanse and reorder the minds of those who are not… This is cancel culture’s most grotesque achievement: to chill everyday discussion; to make examples of prominent wrongthinkers in order to warn the entire population; to enforce and police parameters of acceptable thought and to make it clear that anyone who steps outside of them risks, in Trump’s words, being ‘censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished’. It is real, it is wrong, and it is destructive. It harms individuals and it shatters liberty. It induces fear in ordinary people and it stultifies public debate. A healthy society is built on freedom, openness and the rights of dissent and intellectual experimentation. Cancel culture undermines all of those things. That’s why it must be defeated.’ https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/06/the-tyranny-of-cancel-culture/ This from Iowahawk: David Burge: ‘Noam Chomsky was a Cambodian Genocide denier who defended Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and today I learned cancel culture has gotten too wacky even for him.’

08/07/2020: An American President’s Greatest Speech – no, not the Gettysburg Address: https://amgreatness.com/2020/07/04/a-magnificent-speech/

08/07/2020:

08/07/2020: This is all the fault of incompetent commie clown Andrews. Needless to say I said you should never vote for him/them. Still though all the people who did the right thing are in lock-down those faux ‘Australians’ who were paid to return by us (when they were told to return in March), and all those who refused to be tested and all the commies who broke restrictions so they could have racist protests are to blame – and Andrews abetted all of them. He still refuses to compulsorily test just as he will fail to keep the same type of people locked down, so the virus will be impossible to control. Victoria may as well give up on it right now and just let the people who are going to die of it do so. No doubt it is still difficult to access the cure as well. Great. (ie Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice a day + Azithromycin 500 mg + Zinc sulfate 220 mg once a day for 5 days – suggest you stock up. Clive Palmer ensured there is an adequate supply)

07/07/2020: Why ‘culture’ is important: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/07/a-viral-new-bird-song-in-canada-is-causing-sparrows-to-change-their-tune/

07/07/2020: Beavers cause global warming – might be time for a new hat then: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/01/climate-scientist-anyone-who-wants-to-predict-the-future-of-the-permafrost-should-be-sure-to-keep-the-beaver-in-mind/

07/07/2020: Quote of the week: ‘The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.’ ― Thomas Sowell

07/07/2020: The Terror that is China: If you read nothing else this week/year you must read this essay. I rarely have anything good to say about the Left, but Clive Hamilton’s warnings about China are a crucial exception: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/china/2020/07/clive-hamiltons-brave-and-urgent-alarm/

06/07/2020: What does one do when the virtue-signalling market is flooded? https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2020/07/boris-johnson-s-fianc-e-carrie-symonds-calls-for-end-to-monkey-slavery.html

06/07/2020: Another climate catastrophist (along with Michael Moore) has recanted. Now Michael Schellenberger says it was all a mistake. Sorry for all the alarm and the countless billions of dollars wasted – not to mention the millions of lives and billions of animals destroyed (eg by their clearing tropical forests to grow biodiesel) & etc. (And hypocritical Kevin Rudd spends $17 million on a beach house!) These people: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/29/schellenberger-on-behalf-of-environmentalists-i-apologize-for-the-climate-scare/

06/07/2020: This is what the United Nations thinks of human rights. Just take a look at the countries voting for the crushing of Hing Kong. The UN is a joke (at best) and needs to be reformed/abolished – almost certainly the latter. There is already too much government: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/06/what-do-you-call-a-vote-of-despots-and-tyrants/

05/07/2020: Racist Fish:

05/07/2020: Don’t believe in the police force but require private security? The City of Minneapolis is spending $4,500 a day for private security for three council members…(They) have been outspoken proponents of defunding the Minneapolis Police Department. https://www.fox9.com/news/minneapolis-council-members-get-private-security-after-threats You couldn’t invent this stuff!

5/07/2020: Lessons from Mengele: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/22/revisiting-mengeles-malignant-race-science

5/07/2020: Hydroxychloroquine: Improving Survival in Hospitalised patients by 50%: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/02/health/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-detroit-study/index.html Taken earlier in this combination will produce even better results: This is the prescription which has saved millions of lives:

1. Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice a day for 5 days

2. Azithromycin 500 mg once a day for 5 days

3. Zinc sulfate 220 mg once a day for 5 days

4/07/2020: Will the Three Gorges dam Burst? This is what ‘losing the mandate of heaven’ looks like in China. If so, Xi is (probably) doomed. We can only hope so and that with him communism completely collapses there too: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/china-floods-mud-hail-raise-concerns-about-the-three-gorges-dam/

4/07/2020: The Tiniest of Knives: Just as a follow-up to my recent utility knife post I have recently become aware of these two wonderful little knives, one of which must just about qualify as being the tiniest of knives at .169 oz (4.8 grams) – less than a credit card, they say in their ad! The other is a cheaper, slightly heavier version of the Dragonfly knife: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/07/03/the-tiniest-of-knives/

4/07/2020: The Coming Great Koala Plague: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/koalas-extinct-no-chance-its-just-another-man-made-boom-n-bust-cycle/

4/07/2020: Cosmic Mysteries – Disappearing Stars: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/06/a-massive-star-has-disappeared-without-a-trace/

4/07/2020: Independence Day: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.’

3/07/2020: Ten people who ought to be permanently out of work – on bread and water, (instead of being allowed to waste $10 million dollars): https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/07/02/our-new-national-brand-plagiarism/

3/07/2020: Our Defence surge is necessary, but it has been too long coming. This vital area has been botched for too long. Howard made some improvements but they needed to be built on, not squandered (as Gillard did). Then we had Malcolm with his ridiculous submarine contract to be delivered long after 2032, 2 operational subs, <50 tanks, etc, etc. Meanwhile the communist dictatorship in China becomes increasingly dangerous. Well, it always was – why did the West ever back it? Long past time to give India a leg up folks. I suspect much of Xi and his oligopoly’s saber rattling underlines internal weaknesses but they can always (dangerously) be deflected into an external war. Whether many of China’s only children will actually die for their country as compared with those from vast families within Islam for example is an interesting intellectual exercise which I am loath to test. If I were the G7 I would buy the Red Army. Yes, you heard that right. I would buy their loyalty right out from under Pres Xi. If you offer them individual safety and prosperity outside the protection of their communist state they may well then stand back and allow the people to bloodlessly sweep Xi and his clique aside. There are hundreds of millions of Chinese people just longing for freedom, capitalism and a liberal democracy. I believe this time is now. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt-scott-morrisons-scramble-to-buy-war-weapons-is-too-little-too-late/news-story/34a27b69a9c326fb55e98c8f283d1c68

03/07/2020: Pentridge and Old Melbourne Gaol are I believe still available to ‘house’ those who (in all conscience no doubt) refuse Covid testing. Of course 14 days quarantine is necessary for such people as they must be presumed to be infectious to protect the population. I suspect just that the offer of fourteen days in the ‘Bluestone College’ would be enough to convince all but a very tiny percentage that testing was in their and the public’s interest. Dan, you are a bloody fool. Smarten up or move over. These irresponsible diseased animals are putting the public at risk every day and look like destroying all that we have proudly achieved at enormous cost so far. PS: There are now 10,000 ‘refuseniks’ in the ‘hot spots’ (Why am I not surprised?) These people are not Australians. These people deserve no protection from Australian law, welfare or Government services. In two days this number has gone from 1,000 to 10,000 - spreading faster than the virus! https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/rita-panahi-how-our-human-rights-charter-rules-out-mandatory-virus-tests/news-story/37703fa8a6cc2b7f87d7341e49e1442e & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/new-reports-of-risky-behaviour-by-staff-linked-to-hotel-quarantine-outbreaks/news-story/d5d5d180001de6764b2e35180cce3294 & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/hospitals-gear-up-as-fears-grow-over-dangerous-virus-surge/news-story/4a6c926618927968e9f994b21e4613f5

02/07/2020: The Carry-on Knife Problem Solved: It is such a nuisance arriving at your destination and not having your favourite knife available for those simple tasks like peeling an apple, opening a box, cutting a rope etc. It is also awkward to have to post your knife ahead for pick-up or buy one then throw it away or post it back - but there is a better way, as they say: the folding utility knife: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/07/02/the-carry-on-knife-problem-solved/

02/07/2020: Mauritania: Where 10% of the population still live in slavery. Black lives matter? http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html

02/07/2020: Michael Flynn hits back. We are at war with socialism. The very future of civilization is at stake: https://www.westernjournal.com/exclusive-gen-flynn-dont-act-2-people-control-98/

02/07/2020: And in case you thought Covid 19 was not bad enough China now has another one. We must end communism in China. Re-elect Trump: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/01/viral-encore-another-swine-flu-strain-in-china-reportedly-threatens-to-become-a-pandemic/

01/07/2020: One of the world’s greatest economists and intellectuals Thomas Sowell turns 90: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/30/thomas-sowell-turns-ninety/

01/07/2020: Well said Anthony Dillon: ‘Walk a mile in our shoes before you criticise.’ Maybe they should try walking a few yards in the shoes of the police just to see what it’s like…If they really want to help make things better…footage of black-on-black violence, of child abuse and community dysfunction would be a catalyst for conversations about the need to address real problems rather than largely notional ones’. https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2020/06/when-the-facts-fade-to-black/ PS: Anthony Dillon identifies as a part-Aboriginal Australian who is proud of both his Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ancestries. PPS: In all this there is probably nothing less helpful than the ‘Stolen Generations’ Myth. In fact there was no stolen generation. People have been unable to name even 10 out of a supposed 100,000 and none had succeeded in proving the truth of their claim before the law. Meanwhile aboriginal women - and children especially continue to suffer terribly: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/what-jessie-stephens-never-heard-about-the-stolen-generations/news-story/fcb4e97d695339d2e2c3beb39165f2c5

01/07/2020: Masks and Vitamin D – nearly as good as a vaccine (Effectiveness: 75% + 40%). Use them: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/07/cheap-ways-to-starve-a-virus-masks-reduce-spread-by-70-distance-by-80/

01/07/2020: Keep Skippy.This is nuts: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/rendezview/miranda-devine-nation-brand-are-wrong-to-propose-replacing-the-kangaroo-with-wattle-as-australias-national-symbol/news-story/fbaaf97893136b57b094af1d9f11eb34

30/06/2020: So, 1,000 people in Melbourne today refused to be tested for Covid 19. They don't want to be part of Australia. I have a solution for them: immediate and permanent 'outlawry'. They did not want to be part of Australia? They no longer are. The may receive nothing from the Government including no protection from its laws. They are now on their own. Anyone may do anything to them with impunity. However, they can have 24 hours to leave permanently before this takes effect.

30/06/2020: What it’s like to live in a city full of moose: https://weather.com/safety/news/2020-06-12-living-in-a-city-full-of-moose

30/06/2020: Why can’t people see and learn from their mistakes? Koestler called it the ‘ghost in the machine’ – humans have a fatal (intellectual) flaw. Is there a cure? I don’t know: https://www.aier.org/article/why-facts-dont-matter-to-people/ For example: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/29/a-tale-of-two-or-three-energy-policies/

30/06/2020: Sweden has certainly conducted a very interesting ‘experiment’: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/28/the-progress-of-the-covid-19-epidemic-in-sweden-an-analysis/

29/06/2020: These people putting everyone’s lives at risk need to be publicly whipped. Let’s get seious people. These people are also risking the billions we have already spent on this. Such selfishness should be rewarded with something they will understand at once. Say fifty strokes of the lash! Yes, I am utterly serious: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/coronavirus/new-saliva-test-fasttracked-to-coronavirus-hotspot-suburbs/news-story/f7e706de36bbf5c7b47cec1b5de77e7e

29/06/2020: The Greens are just thoroughly evil. ‘For cobalt alone, over 40,000 Congolese children, as young as four years old, slave away alongside their parents in mines, for a dollar a day, risking cave-ins and being exposed constantly to filthy, toxic, radioactive mud, dust, water and air. That’s today – for today’s battery, solar panel and wind turbine needs. Imagine how many would be needed to serve the Green New Deal. 400,000 perhaps? 4,000,000?’ The Greens must be destroyed. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/22/greens-promote-child-slave-labor-and-ecological-destruction/

29/06/2020: Terriblisation: I think this is the chiefest cause of human misery. Some folks just can’t help but cry, ‘Woe is me’ at the drop of every merest hat! There is no sense to this constant litany that all is terrible. An immense logical fallacy is involved: the external world is wholly indifferent to us (and everyone else). It is neither good nor bad, and entirely uncaring. Nor should it be. It is inanimate. It is not peopled by malevolent spirits or any other sort of boojums. It is the little man riding in your head who is responsible for this mis-identification, not some big man in the sky. It is he (or she) who discerns all as being terrible. It is your response, to what is more like than not no calamity at all. Sometimes it is, though. A young friend of mine posted recently on the ‘secret’ of his happiness. Judged by what the external world has ‘done’ to him, you might think he has no ‘right’ to be happy. The love of his life was wrenched terribly from him in her early twenties. He chooses instead to be happy – as she would have wanted! She loved him, you see! Because of her, he has a duty to be happy. And so he is. I could mention many other people known to me whose circumstances have been anything but fortunate but who rise above them. To end the terribilisation, you have to make a choice, to slough off that despond, to pass it by, to not be rapt in it. Let it pass. Move on. So many joys await…

29/06/2020: Did you realize that there are people who believe that if there is a type of work you don’t want to do you shouldn’t have to do it, but that someone else who does want to do it should do it instead and then pay taxes to you so you have the choice to refuse, and do nothing. The mystery is, ‘Who are these people who want to do that work and pay the taxes so you have the right to refuse?’ Strangely I have never met a single one of them. I suspect they may be mythical beasts like the Yeti, dragons, gnomes…

28/06/2020: The sense of entitlement is just mind-boggling: 30% of those ‘returned’ so-called Australians flown back and quarantined in 5-star hotels at our expense refuse to be tested for Covid 19! Many/most continue to fraternise with others in ‘quarantine’ or break it in other ways, spread it throughout the community and still speak of ‘rights’ – as if they should not be shot down in the street like mad dogs if they want to spread contagion like diseased animals! I am so sick of the ‘welfare mentality’. How is it I get to be a slave to these people as if I wanted to build their pyramids and such? Why would I take money out of my pocket and hand it to them voluntarily when they do nothing for me to earn it? It only happens because I am compelled to do so. The most important right is the right to private property. These spongers steal my property at every turn with impunity. Oh, what a vile tyranny socialism is! But it will end – in their bitter tears, mark my words! & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/rendezview/peta-credlin-victorias-covid19-case-number-spike-risks-australias-economic-recovery/news-story/86b84993d3e00d442a01f118b17aa75e PS: If I refuse to be tested please can I have a holiday for fourteen days (now 24 days) in a Five Star Hotel at no cost to myself? Is it any wonder there are takers? I/we have never in our lives afforded to stay in such a hotel! Fortunately I have never wanted to either; I do prefer to sleep out on the ground in the wilderness!

28/06/2020: All around our district businesses have signs out the front saying ‘Workers wanted’. I have not seen anything like it since the Sixties. For example the local wrecker where I bought ‘new’ doors for the Disco I bent a little bt a while back has had this sign up for nearly a month. He says no-one will apply because they are being paid double (by us all) not to work! ‘Jobseeker’ and ‘Jobkeeper’ are just insane plans. This is not the way to get Australia back to work. PS: Also the names of the schemes should be changed to something which has the word ‘work’ in them. The scientific and literal definition of ‘work’ is the effort of moving mass over distance. It is not the ‘position’. It is the ‘doing’. ‘Job’ conveys a sense of entitlement. ‘Work’’ conveys a sense of something actually done for your earned money. You ‘earn’ if you ‘work’. Not otherwise! Let’s start that now. After all, it’s our money which pays for this nonsense! PS: Just to use the local wreckers as an example: It may not be the Rolls Royce of jobs, but I have done much worse work myself for many years (and paid taxes out of my wages). I resent supporting folk who won't support themselves.This has been going on in my life since the early 1960s. I have seen countless examples of it. I have also had paid work for people lots of times, offered it to people, been refused, reported them to Centrelink - and nothing done! I'm sorry I just don't believe in 'welfare', ie something for nothing.

28/06/2020: Chess is racist because white always moves first, but it would be just as racist if black always moved first. Oh dear. PS: Tooth paste is racist too – and bread, milk, clouds, ice, elephants...No, not all elephants.

27/06/2020: Those BLM folk do realize don’t they that Islam still has black slaves whom they continue to abuse, chain, rape, castrate whilst these activists look on uncaringly as Moslems are the ‘downtrodden’, don’t you know? https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/06/black-slaves-matter/

27/06/2020: Western Civilisation – where did it go? ‘All it took was one generation of neglect, just one, and poof, the reserve of bourgeois values necessary to maintain Western Civilization all disappeared. And I'm not sure it's possible to ever get it back. Because, as G.K. Chesterton once said, “if men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.”: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/388860.php

27/06/2020: Wonnangatta #14: A few more clues in today’s Herald Sun ‘interview’ with a close friend of Russell Hill: Mr Ashlin says, ‘Russell would never, ever leave his vehicle’. (So they really did not go for a walk and get lost. We can definitely discount that). He also says that during their final conversation (of Russell) ‘He was sparkling like normal, he never had a worry in the world. The way he was behaving was like he had done any other time up in the bush. He was upbeat during our last chat’.) So there was no indication (to his friend) that there was anything about what happened to Russell that he had any apprehension about). “During their final conversation Mr Hill announced he was at Wonnangatta station and soon planned to drive to Dargo, about 70km away. He had not been there before and asked for directions’. (This is a surprise to me). ‘Something that puzzles Mr Ashlin about the mystery is why Mr Hill went camping alone in the area of the King Billy and Bluff Track between March 11 and 13 before the pair’s trip. “He never said boo about it, it was a surprise,” he said… “I don’t know why he went on that trip, it was only an overnight stay, and a six-hour drive each way. There is something strange about it. Robyn can’t work it out either.”’ – Perhaps he met his murderer/s on that occasion? Did he have (unknown) business with him/them?

There is also this photo of Russell camping (on a sunny day):

Missing man Russell Hill on an earlier camping trip.

You will remember that Russell’s hat was on the dash of his car and that the car was locked and the keys missing. Russell clearly took precautions against sun exposure. This pretty clearly shows that what happened to them happened on the night of the 19th March as he would clearly have taken his hat if he went for a walk on the 20th.

Mr Ashlin also said: ‘He’s been attacked, I believe there is more than one person involved.’ He does not explain why he thinks this. Perhaps it means nothing – but it is quite difficult for one person to lift (two) bodies into a 4WD (even moreso if it was a tray/ute) by themselves. (Two people are also more likely to be caught than one acting alone). The more people who know the more likely the truth will leak out. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/friends-last-conversation-with-missing-high-country-camper-russell-hill-revealed/news-story/3ab69d511adaa85926918fa8f92ab088

26/06/2020: Up to now this was the greatest US President ever, perhaps always will be. Watch this: one of his greatest speeches (back in 1964): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdP7gspt8CE

26/06/2020: Mind you if this is what Trump has to beat he won’t have a very hard time doing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0VTlipoNWQ

26/06/2020: Interestingly penguins would benefit from Antarctica melting (not that something twice as big as Australia that is at a temperature of -50C is ever likely to): http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/penguins-pretty-happy-about-melting-sea-ice/

26/06/2020: The two greatest evils of the last millennium remain communism and Islam – and they are still both with us, and still doing us harm. Maybe not so much as the hundreds of millions each have murdered (more for Islam) but the recent Covid 19 outbreak in Vic illustrates both. Both these vile creeds had a hand in it: both groups broke the health protocols and social distancing rules we all had to obey to protect everyone – because they are (both) just ‘better’ than us and don’t give a damn! The BLM are communists – I supposed you knew that. Of course what I am saying here is now ‘hate speech’ because it has become illegal to call out evil for just what it is. But seriously how can any creed (both) which murders millions (annually on average!) ever be confused with something good? If I am to be prosecuted for pointing out that murder is evil we have descended into the pit a really long way – and I suspect we have! PS: If you can’t read this it’s time you paid for a subscription to the Herald Sun: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/why-we-need-to-probe-if-tribalism-is-behind-new-coronavirus-spike/news-story/d1611a9e5f7b5191dcbedcb81c104ac3 & https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/muslim-end-of-ramadan-celebration-responsible-for-large-cluster-of-victorias-coronavirus-cases.html PPS: Yes, there are others too in Australia who refuse to join the ‘team’, (some recent arrivals, some a result of generations of ‘pay to breed’ experiments) who refuse to see that we are all in this boat together and all need to pull (at the metaphorical oars) together. Frankly there is no place for them either wherever they may have been born. Citizenship ought properly be a right which is earned, not conferred by birth. Those who refuse to take up the responsibilities of citizenship should first of all be deprived of its benefits, then (if they continue in their unmended ways) be deported – in the unlikely case that anyone would want them, any more than anyone (else) would want to employ those who ‘work’ for the ABC!

25/06/2020: The Ultralight Hairdresser: Of course you could just go about with your hair looking like an untidy birds' nest but few girls especially would want to. I have carried the same old comb below (3 grams) for twenty years. I own that I could probably have found a slightly shorter, lighter one but there is some sentimental attachment.

The broken tooth was courtesy of my daughter Irralee when Canoeing the Seaforth on the Dusky Track (2009) as she had forgotten to bring something for her hair! Memories. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/25/the-ultralight-hairdresser/

25/06/2020: Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to invite his black American friend (Booker T Washington) to dinner at the White House something the Democrats decried for years, yet the mob wants to take his statue down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=253&v=cxxHV5vu1Mo&feature=emb_title

25/06/2020: About the folly of rushing into a hydrogen economy: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/24/hasten-slowly-with-hydrogen/ Surely we have already had enough Green disasters. I would just like to continue to fill up my tank with Super for a little while longer yet.

25/06/2020: The Political Genius of Donald Trump (arguably the greatest President ever), ‘The Democrat’s ‘latest presidential candidate looks as if he has just wandered out of a retirement home with an idea of what he’d like for lunch but no idea of how to get to the dining room.’: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/06/the_political_genius_of_donald_trump.html

24/06/2020: Just what you need, a Pocket Sized Bottle Rope Maker: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grimworkshop/pocket-sized-plastic-bottle-rope-maker-turn-trash-into-rope?fbclid=IwAR1NueTgoIm6DLEh34Ov5uOovDdqK6Qkf32iL9W9UsFrp2z9DmMXn0OLlOY&ref=6teva8 When one thinks about the many wonderful uses to which used drink bottles can be put (eg bottle rockets) one wonders that any are thrown away ever.

24/06/2020: I warned at the start (Xmas) before anyone had shut their borders that if countries did not act it could be worse than a World War. Now the US death toll has exceeded lives lost in WW1 and continues to climb, as it does elsewhere. Though the first million cases took months to accumulate, the last one million cases only took eight days to add. The next will take much less than a week…All the more reason to take our own lock-down and elimination strategies extremely seriously. Government needs to ramp up the punishments for disobeying health orders. I really did mean shoot people if they will not obey when I said so the other day. If people insist on walking around with a loaded virus firing it willy-nilly, what can they expect? Now we learn that many of those who recover will be maimed for life: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/one-in-three-hospitalized-with-covid-may-be-harmed-for-life-say-uk-docs/ of course, not everyone agrees. I could be wrong: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/23/welcome-to-idiocracy/ & https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/23/did-lockdowns-really-save-3-million-covid-19-deaths-as-flaxman-et-al-claim/ but there are still an awful lot of people getting sick and dying.

24/06/2020: Unpunished rapist Bill Shorten pontificates that Heydon should be stripped of Australia Day honours (just for being accused). That’s just a bit rich. When’s your day in court, Bill? I’m sure your victim, Kathy is just loving your high-mindedness. Look I seriously do think the punishment should follow the trial and verdict, not occur before – but I also think there should be a trial, not what your political mates can just fix it whatever you do so you just go free. I don’t know what Heydon did, if anything. Perhaps some girls simply needed to ‘man up’. Perhaps he is/was a creep who richly deserved a thrashing behind the pub long ago. But Gillard and Shorten (for example) have walked free of a heap of crimes for far too long – and been honoured. The evidence against them is overwhelming, (as incidentally Heydon found out, interestingly. Bill and Julia certainly looked pretty uncomfortable in his dock. Payback perhaps): https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/accused-sex-offender-bill-shorten-pretends-to-take-the-high-moral-ground-on-sexual-harassment.html

23/06/2020: What a loss Michael Crichton’s death was. 20 Years On, Jurassic Park Author Michael Crichton is Still Right about Global Warming: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/07/09/aliens-cause-global-warming-a-caltech-lecture-by-michael-crichton/

23/06/2020: The Greens are still in favour of slavery (as well as numerous other awful evils such as mass murder (For example, they have killed 100 million people from malaria alone through their ban on various safe insecticides). The Greens must be destroyed: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/21/blood-batteries-climate-advocates-grappling-with-the-gruesome-extractive-price-of-renewable-energy/

23/06/2020: Scott is going to shut down Arts faculties no longer bastions of ‘the best that has been thought and said’ but breeding grounds of communist and anarchist insurrection. Will he also shut down the ABC and SBS too please so that the rest of us can get on with building productive lives?

22/06/2020: A Hobo in a Roller: If you are a really up-market hobo you can buy this ready-made Tomshoo Brand titanium (of course) hobo stove from Aliexpress for US$14.94 (June 2020). It weighs 55 grams (1.9 oz). Dimensions are : 80 mm (high) x 91 mm (dia) / 3.15 x 3.58 in – so a little smaller than mine 1250mm x 100 mm / 5″ x 4″ (height/dia) and 92 grams (but free). https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/22/a-hobo-in-a-roller/

22/06/2020: Yet Another Green Evil: ‘There is growing pressure on the Australian Royal Commission investigating Bushfires to investigate how greens in positions of authority allegedly hijacked forestry management, to frustrate efforts to protect property and lives by back burning, to manage forest fuel load’. The Greens must be destroyed, (to plagiarise Cato – and Carthage): https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/19/sky-news-aussie-royal-commission-to-investigate-climate-activist-hijacking-of-forestry-management/

22/06/2020: Whose lives matter? ‘In 2018, there were over 600,000 violent incidents between black people and white people. In nine out of ten of those black people were the offenders and white people were the victims of the violence’. Thoughts from a couple of prominent African American intellectuals: Booker T Washington 1911: ‘There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs – partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.’ Thomas Sowell 2020, ‘Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as racists.’ https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/black-lies-matter/

22/06/2020: Two weeks and now the second wave: Thanks a lot George Floyd. As if it weren’t enough that this piece of criminal scum wasn’t simply drowned at birth which would be the best idea for such ferals, (or preventing their breeding in the first place), people defying Covid 19 restrictions beginning with the absurd communist BLM protests but rippling outwards from there as authorities proved to be ‘paper tigers’ have brought us (not just here in Victoria – lots of places) a second wave. Just when we about had this thing extinct in Australia too. If we can’t contain it and I have my doubts now that the paper tiger is loose all will have been in vain. We can just stand back and watch the death toll climb as it has elsewhere. Gladys, close the borders. Dan, lock Melbourne down. Ban travel to the disease free regions. Fine the bejesus out of anyone wanting to defy the rules. Shoot them if necessary. There is still a chance we might nip this in the bud.

21/06/2020: A Caldera Cosy: You will have seen the Jetboil and similar devices supposed to save fuel. I suppose they do but there is something wrong with the whole concept of carrying canister stoves. This ‘device’ saves fuel on an alcohol stove.

I have made one for my caldera cone which is an important component of my Cookset but soon to be upgraded my myself to an improved model. My ‘cosy’ will still fit however as I won’t be changing my pot.

I have made this truncated cone ‘cosy’ from a piece of carbon felt (because it is insulating but doesn’t burn) to see how much fuel would be saved if all the waste heat that escapes out the top of the cone and along the sides of the pot had to be directed into the water in the pot. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/20/a-caldera-cosy/

21/06/2020: There are two kinds of people… http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/35123-There-Are-Two-Kinds-of-People.-People-Who-Divide-People-Into-Two-Kinds-of-People....html

21/06/2020: Why 536 AD (not 2020) was the worst year ever: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

21/06/2020: Covid 19: If you look at Mauritius' data (still the most successful country i am familiar with) they had no cases for a whole month - but it was clearly still 'lurking'. This is a nasty, deadly disease. The fight against it is not over. Look around the world at the hundreds of thousands of lives it is still burning away (and it could suddenly mutate into an even deadlier strain). I remind you that our parents (whom I posted about just two days ago had to endure 6 years of WW2. Sometimes fights can be long and unpleasant but they must be endured. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/mauritius/

21/06/2020: Wonnangatta Disappearances #14: Since the ‘botched’ search for the missing autistic boy Andrew Rule seems to have leaned more back towards natural causes (and away from his ‘Button Man’) to account for Russell and Carol’s disappearance. There is one ‘new’ element in Andrew’s report concerning the car keys. It had always been reported that the vehicle was found with car keys ‘inside’ it ie (I assumed) unlocked. Andrew now claims it was locked but with (spare) hidden keys. If Russell had the keys ‘in his pocket’ (as Andrew says) this makes one lean towards believing they disappeared in the bush without other human intervention and the search just failed to find them. Of course the keys (and other items) could also have been taken away by a third party (eg to enhance the mystery). The matter is so redolent of the earlier (unsolved) murder in 1917 (read Wiki) that it will continue to haunt us. If their bodies are still lying somewhere (lost) in the Wonnangatta bush I guess it is likely some hunter will find them during the next hunting season. The gates are now locked until November. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/others-in-wonnangatta-valley-could-hold-key-to-missing-camper-mystery/news-story/18e03a60915f689fa25deae9c9a2ae8f & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonnangatta_murders PS: I have since read this morning's Herald Sun and there is another piece of information contained in the teaser' to the story above: that Russell's hat was found on the dash of his car. Now, if he went for a walk during the day he would very likely have taken his hat. I also always lock my car when I go to bed even when camping in the bush. These two items (keys and hat) taken together indicate strongly to me that they disappeared the night before and that there was foul play. BTW. I had 'forgotten' (early reports were confused) that police did not arrive on the scene for days. The trail was definitely cold by then, and no doubt lots of other campers had thoroughly confused the 'crime' scene, so police have definitely had a difficult case to solve here. Hopefully they have some clues we don't know about from phone evidence etc.My wife is definitely more reluctant to visit the Wonnangatta we love until this 'mystery' is solved - if it ever is though. The 1917 murders (they certainly were) are still unsolved

20/06/2020: Our own JR, ‘Spot’ won’t like this. You Can Now Buy Spot the Robot Dog—If You’ve Got $74,500: https://www.wired.com/story/you-can-now-buy-spot-the-robot-dog/

20/06/2020: Rejuvenation: This sounds promising, ‘Replacing half of the blood plasma of old mice with a mixture of saline and albumin…has the same or stronger rejuvenation effects on the brain, liver and muscle than…young blood exchange’: https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/06/15/diluting-blood-plasma-rejuvenates-tissue-reverses-aging-in-mice/

20/06/2020: Do the descendants of Australian slaves feel that there has ever been ‘systemic racism’ or that they have been given a raw deal? No, they don’t: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2020/06/systemic-welfare-not-racism-is-the-real-issue/ However, the whole idea that such (‘blackbird’) slavery occurred at all is an invention. Read historian Keith Windschuttle’s depiction of the real history of this phenomenon: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/bennelong-papers/2020/06/the-myths-of-south-seas-slavery-in-australia/ Interestingly the Guardian which has been instrumental in concocting this slavery meme is being forced to shut down on account of its founder having been made rich by slaves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blAqycSix8U&feature=emb_title The same phenomenon informs the American debate on this: Most people might not realise that it was the Democrats who were pro-slavery and the Republicans who were abolitionists!

19/06/2020: A Hobo’s Breakfast: It costs nothing at all (and only a couple of minutes) to create your own safe wood burning hiking stove which will cook you up a wonderful breakfast (below) in just a few minutes without having to carry any fuel at all (or any other stove) with you into the wilderness. A big saving.

You only need a few simple hand tools such as those pictured (or similar) which I’m sure you have in your kitchen or workshop. A can opener which will cut out the side of the can (not the top). A ‘church key’ such as used to be used for opening beer cans (Remember?) and a pair of super-tough scissors (or tin snips) for completing the stove ‘door’ opening: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/18/a-hobos-breakfast/

19/06/2020: London 1945: Della’s lovely mother Dorothy was there (all through the Blitz - her home was blown to smithereens above her head), one of the many pretty young women in the crowds who celebrated in the streets whilst Vera sang this (we both peer through the footage looking for her), but the ‘boys’ were still away (Della’s father Bill’s war had by then moved from North Africa to Northern Italy and beyond). Now they are all gone. Alas. But deeply missed. There will never be another generation like them. How they could smile in adversity yet carry on, and never afterwards hark back to their suffering, whilst today’s generations mope if the smallest trifle is withheld from their amusement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qhLPWcm-0w&feature=emb_title

19/06/2020:

19/06/2020: Congratulations to everyone who guessed rightly which founder of a major world religion was a slave owner and advocated slavery (his religion still does). Unfortunately (?) there are no statues or images of him to be torn down (in fact you can be murdered for creating one) but perhaps people should be banned from being named after him.

18/06/2020: Mostly Perspiration: According to Thomas Edison that’s what genius is – and he should have known, with his 2,000 patents. Each took countless experiments, lots of trials and error before he got it right. Tim Tinker is the Thomas Edison of the ultralight tent stove. For years he has been working away at his miniature radiative beauties in his eternal quest for the perfect stove. I would like to showcase just two of his many creations: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/17/mostly-perspiration/

18/06/2020: A Lava Bomb Map. Fascinating: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58893

18/06/2020: Everyone’s life matters: Watch a 15 year old girl being savagely attacked by thugs at a major Melbourne railway station – and police will do nothing: Avi Yemeni - Why are they hiding the violent attack from you? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjF52T6Qtes

18/06/2020: If you behave this way towards police officers whether you are black, white brindle or orange, you deserve to be shot down like a mad dog. That is all: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/deadly-force-was-justified-as-this-crook-tries-to-choke-a-nsw-policewoman-to-death.html

18/06/2020: Calling out BLM. A very well –reasoned letter from a black History Prof who thinks that this movement is the worst thing to come along for black people since slavery, ‘If we claim that the criminal justice system is white-supremacist, why is it that Asian Americans, Indian Americans, and Nigerian Americans are incarcerated at vastly lower rates than white Americans… As an example of the latter problem, consider the proportion of black incarcerated Americans. This proportion is often used to characterize the criminal justice system as anti-black. However, if we use the precise same methodology, we would have to conclude that the criminal justice system is even more anti-male than it is anti-black.’ https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/12/a-letter-smuggled-out-from-the-berkeley-gulag/

17/06/2020: Small Game: Was once the bushman’s standy-by. It is usually abundant, enormously varied, relatively easily to take, involves little waste or preparation and is varied and nutritious. Of course much of it is also illegal. You will notice that in my post about the journey to Cromarty not so long ago everyone used to take a rifle to obtain extra food on the journey

It is a bizarre contradiction really that the folks (who require such bans and who mandate such poor management of public lands through ‘conservation’ strategies such as National Parks) should also be responsible thereby for the episodic vastly destructive wildfires which are so destructive of such wildlife – whilst the larger animals (deemed pests by the same folk) such as deer and brumbies survive better.

Where (and when) game is plentiful though (and only being reserved for the next apocalyptic inferno anyway) and considering 90+% of every season’s annual production would normally only perish over the lean seasons of winter/summer through starvation also, I see no rational reason why one’s larder ought not be supplemented with it – as it always used to be… https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/17/small-game/

17/06/2020: Feral Humans? Of course there are. And just as the nation was once over-run and eaten out by rabbits and is till beset by countless other pests: foxes, wombats, kangaroos, corellas, etc we also have a plague of unproductive and destructive people. It is so much easier to destroy a thing than make it. Some people just excel at this, and particularly at destroying value, not least financial value. How easy is it to burn money?

One of the chiefest reasons I am opposed to the welfare system is that it is all about waste: wasting money and wasting people’s lives. Lives which might be made better through productive work and self-improvement, but instead they are made into ‘ferals’ unable or unwilling to contribute meaningfully to society and simply become a drain on it.

‘Free stuff’ is just social and economic lunacy. It is certainly never going to make for human betterment. It is nothing like the just rewards of hard work and personal effort. It is also quite insane to simply pay people to breed. If that is all that people are ‘good for’ – and the results clearly show they are not very food for that, they should not be permitted or encouraged to breed – as a livestock breeder I would soon be broke if I followed that sort of selective breeding practice as our welfare system promotes (and so will our society be too).

I know that most every responsible productive working woman uses some sort of effective family planning strategy so that they only bring children into the world who are wanted and whom they can support and nurture. Many use the long-acting implantable contraception which has been available now for years. These last for more than a year.

Instead of society simply being ‘obliged’ to provide for the unwanted children of the welfare classes, I think it would be more than reasonable if women of breeding age who are recipients of welfare were required to annually submit a doctor’s certificate attesting that they had a current such implant to prevent pregnancy as a condition of receiving welfare.

It is one thing to be unable or unwilling to support yourself (and so become a burden to others). It is quite another to willy-nilly bring more of your like into the world to increase that unwanted burden even further.

You should understand I only consider this an interim step: I want to abolish the welfare system altogether and move people on to productive lives. We need to use both the goad and the reward to achieve this but achieve it we must before we are quite over-run.

Already we have nearly 50% of the population on some sort of welfare or another. Sometimes this is just a nonsensical ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ whilst at the same time robbing Paul to pay Peter – with the only advantage going to the ‘bean-counters’ and other parasites who maintain the system..

17/06/2020: Should farming be banned: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/15/farmers-fear-the-european-green-deal/

17/06/2020: Dexamethasone: Some good Covid 19 News for once: https://www.9news.com.au/world/coronavirus-treatment-updates-dexamethasone-breakthrough-from-uk-scientists/6f637d91-857f-40c2-9565-aef03e072e95

16/06/2020: Remove the historical statues or remove separate ‘indigenous’ (ie racist) funding? It is our common history, warts and all – and should never be forgotten or papered over. I have enough problems accepting that people should be funded according to ‘need’ when all my instinct tells me that ‘suffering’ is just the ‘sauce’ that people ‘need’ to encourage them to make an effort to get themselves out from under whatever terrible situation they might ‘find’ themselves in, become like the rest of us who have pulled ourselves up ‘by our own bootstraps’, ‘stood on our own two feet’ and ‘given life as good as you get’…but I can accept funding according to ‘need’ for some things - perhaps eg old age pensions for those who are already far too old to meaningfully make a contribution any more, but I cannot accept funding based on ‘race’. This must be abolished: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/statues-destroyed-overseas-reignite-debate-over-victorias-colonial-monuments/news-story/061da1ecead13da0eb5230c8bd8b5ae6

16/06/2020: China lost a lot more people than their official stats revealed. People would be much less angry with China about the virus and the economic melt-down it caused if they would just ‘fess up to this. Xi is the problem (a damned big problem, perhaps WW3 in scale – who knows?) but instead of ramping up the tension Xi how about trying to calm things down a bit, or is the internal situation in China so dire that you need to create an external threat to cling on to power as previous dictators have tried to do (usually unsuccessfully in the end): http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/estimates-from-crematoria-and-urns-in-china-of-2-2-million-cases-36000-dead/

16/06/2020: Another perspective: David Leyonhjelm is right (as usual). Likely it is true that in the long-term no lives have been saved at all (just deaths deferred) but economies have been destroyed which almost certainly costs more lifetimes than would be swallowed up by an epidemic which could have been better managed eg utilizing cheap available therapies and preventatives, such as I have discussed here many times. I am surprised no-one has mentioned (to date) for example) the utility of negative ion generators in removing (infective) particles from the air indoors: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/14/david-leyonhjelm-stop-listening-to-public-health-doctors/

15/06/2020: Plumbing the Depths: You can repurpose many humble plumbing fittings into wonderful ultralight hiking tools. Take this cheap 19mm (3/4″) irrigation tee from Bunnings for A$1.54 (June 2020) .

I have carried one to sit the sharp end of my hiking pole in so it doesn’t pierce the floor of my tent. An end joiner works well for that purpose too – and is lighter. You can set it up to start with using your cook pot, then switch after you have your tent pegs in.

They are also just excellent for driving a tent stake into hard ground without damaging the stake – or your hand! This one weighs 14 grams. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/14/plumbing-the-depths/

15/06/2020: Low Dose Radiation for Coronavirus: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/low-dose-radiation-may-save-people-from-coronavirus/ Another perspective: David Leyonhjelm is right (as usual). Likely in the long-term no lives have been saved at all (just deaths deferred) but economies have been destroyed which almost certainly costs more lifetimes than would be swallowed up by an epidemic which could have been better managed. I am surprised no-one as mentioned (to date) for example) the utility of negative ion generators in removing (infective) particles from the air.: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/14/david-leyonhjelm-stop-listening-to-public-health-doctors/

15/06/2020: Wonnangatta Murders: Vicpol is not exactly ‘quick off the block’. It ought to have been clear to any competent intelligent observer that two murders had been committed when their burned ot campsite was discovered at 2pm back on 20^st March. They started looking ofr people/evidence far too late in the day. If they don’t know who did it by now they are really up against it in solving this one. My guess is that they do, but the evidence has been allowed to wither on the vine: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/police-believe-russell-hill-and-carol-clay-met-with-foul-play-in-high-country/news-story/91216a7379a8cebf96f62f2bb1c098bc PS: I know that their search procedures are clearly crap (as evidenced by the recent failure to locate a missing boy), but two elderly people do not just disappear in such suspicious circumstances as this.

14/06/2020: Is Falconio actually still alive? Stranger things have happened. I admit I hadn’t heard this one though credible witnesses who reported seeing him after his death, the absence of a body, Lees’ more than somewhat bizarre and changing accounts, the appearance and disappearance of police evidence, highly questionable DNA, many aboriginal witnesses (whose testimony supported Murdock) and etc all cast the rather unpleasant Murdock’s guilt into serious question. If he had been anywhere near as attractive as Lindy Chamberlain he would long since have been freed: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/crimeinfocus/youre-not-getting-those-four-hours-back-viewers-trash-peter-falconio-documentary/news-story/0c68974a37f71f27ccb725e0013a52fe

14/06/2020: Winston S. Churchill (whose memory it seems ought’ to be obliterated): ‘An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last…Each one hopes that of he feeds the crocodile enough the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear – I fear greatly – the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, even more loudly, even more wildly.’

14/06/2020: A couple of important vids about the current protests, one from John Cleese: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/13/questions-that-need-answers/ and this: Joe Biden Says George Floyd’s Death is Bigger than Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/wth-joe-biden-says-george-floyds-death-bigger-assassination-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-video/ Baloney!

13/06/2020: All Thumbs: Sick of burning your thumb when lighting the fire or the stove with your Mini Bic? I know I am. Here’s the ultralight (1.5 gram) solution. J. Burrows’ Thimblettes from office supplies for just 64 cents each. You can store one on the end of the lighter (as shown) so it is easy to find. One has already gone into my cookset: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/13/all-thumbs/

13/06/2020: Moving on and rising above rather than rising up: I’m sure most of us have bad things in our personal pasts which we can still only recall with anguish. I know my own father’s terrible protracted death when I was 13 remains a pivotal one such for me – and I have had others, but so has everyone else unless you have lived a particularly blessed life.

Again most of us are of mixed race or at least mixed heritage and there are terrible things in our pasts in the C18th, C19th and particularly the C20th. Very few of these things were the fault of anyone living today. Their causes and effects are a matter for scholarly conjecture not for iconoclasm (or monument desecration).

My Irish ancestors (I am 3/8ths ‘Irish’ – whatever that may be) endured the terrible potato famine in which so many (of their relatives and friends) perished for example. My (4/8ths) English ancestors (my patrimonial) originating near Ely in Cambridgeshire endured the enclosure movements and the many excesses of the Industrial Revolution (though it did eventually bring wonderful benefits). In a twinkling they all disappeared from the tiny village of Stuntney (near Ely) where they had bided for many centuries - in a twinkling, scattered (by the enclosure movements) to the large metropolises and the colonies, (or dead).

When the Romans arrived Stuntney was deep in the marshes where (later) Hereward (no doubt a remote ancestor) made his last stand against the Normans, earning him the memorial (on his headstone) ‘the last of the English Men’ – meaning in those days the ‘Britons’, ie those who were there before any of Celts, Romans, Saxons etc. There remain no Joneses at all there today though they probably watched the Romans building their causeway across the marshes to their village, but there are many of us elsewhere.

My 1/8th French ancestor endured the Franco-Prussian War (he was decorated) before migrating to Australia. They lost their first born in the West Australian bush and moved on – he to a distinguished career in (self-taught) civil engineering in NSW. He was affectionately known by those who knew him as ‘the Negro Frenchman’ (for obvious reasons). I never met him but my father’s generation grew up on his knee, learning to sing the Marseillaise before they could read and write.

When I was growing up all the older people around me always urged me to emulate him. It was always glowed with a sense of pride to any praise that some thing I had done showed that I was a ‘true Sanlaville’ (his patrimonial) even though he was definitely what we used to call ‘touched with the tar brush’. This was not then (probably ever) any ‘bar sinister’ or impediment (still less is it today), nor anything any friends or relatives took any notice of at all (let alone adverse).

Those C18th and C19th colonists to Australia endured many deprivations, not least that they never, ever saw their own parents ofr grandparents (or any friends) again ever. I should also mention this: Watkins Tench who was on the First Fleet and left with the Second wrote a beautiful record of those early days (you can read his accounts for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3534 ). Amongst many interesting snippets you will find there are his descriptions of the awful ‘plagues’ which consumed the native inhabitants of Port Jackson: measles, small pox, etc). They died en masse – despite every effort to assist them.

He reports that he colonists took up their orphaned children and raised them as their own (giving them their names too), as you would. As any decent human being has always done! Della had ancestors on the First Fleet and relatives ‘born’ in those early days. There is no telling whether they were a part of this generation of orphans. Who needs to know? They were all precious to their parents and to their descendants and friends.

More recent generations (my parents for example) lived through truly calamitous events in the C20th: the Russian and Chinese revolutions, the great depression the two World Wars. I had uncles in service in various theatres of war and a relative lost in the dreaded Sandakan Death March for example. Nonetheless I remember my parents’ generation as folk with an uninhibited sense of the joy of life; rather than being people dwelling on the dire experiences of the past, they ever taught us to look forward to a happier future.

The past is replete with intriguing stories, astonishing deeds, tales of awful sufferings. Many things. It should never be lost – or painted over. Neither though should it be dwelt upon, nor bizarre efforts at ‘reparation’ or recompense made. We would all be paying money with our right hand to our left hand (or vice versa) to compensate for the supposed ills visited on one ancestor by another!

That vile notion of ‘race’ which should have long since been relegated to the dust bin of history needs to be wholly expunged from our language and consciousness. We are all (as I sad yesterday) only members of the one human race. Instead of there being ‘recognition’ of ‘aborigines’ in our constitution or Departments of ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders Affairs’ and the like, there should only be Departments of Human Affairs.

Insofar as any amongst us is unfortunate enough as to need special assistance (for whatever reason: poverty, illness, disability, isolation etc) this should be available to all equally as a result of need, never ‘race’. Neither should any other ‘benefits’ devolve on people because of their supposed (often astonishingly minor) membership of any particular ‘race’.

13/06/2020: The wonders of modern technology: an entire Roman city mapped without any digging at all: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58829

13/06/2020: ‘Sidere mens eadem mutato’, Sydney university’s motto (‘The stars may change. The mind remains the same’) mocks from its sandstone plinth today. Della and I were both students there in the 1970s. Though one could see even then the seeds of its destruction creeping from the ground beneath the tree in the quad, it remained a great University, but now alas it is a hollow sham. Fortunately though some student’s minds seem capable of rising above this: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/06/my-universitys-betrayal-of-truth/

12/06/2020: Australians have a constitutional right to instant gratification.

12/06/2020: Good news for those struggling with home ownership: You Can Buy Land on Mars Only US$35/acre. Great value.

12/06/2020: ‘Patients in Wuhan, China, are being saved with high-dose vitamin C. In the U.S., you can get your Twitter or Facebook account deleted or your video scrubbed for even talking about it’ American Association of Physicians and Surgeons https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/08/big-tech-pandemic/

12/06/2020: I find all this historical ‘revisionism’ deeply worrying. The latest bid in the great aboriginal grievance poker antic is that somehow despite a ready supply of convict ‘slaves’ nonetheless aboriginals were slaves. Slavery was abolished throughout the Empire as long ago as 1833, but the convict system persisted for nearly another 50 years! Now, my great-great-grandfather was a convict. I am 1/16^th convict – a larger proportion than would qualify me as an ‘aboriginal’ ‘entitled’ to compensation. Della’s great-great- grandfather (on the First Fleet) was a member of the NSW Corps in charge of supervising convicts. Every day I seek and receive ‘compensation’ from her for this historic injustice. Of course I do. This fine-point nit-picking about ‘race’ has to stop. There simply are no ‘races’. There is only the human race – and the genetic relics within some of us (like me, eg of red hair and blue eyes) that reveal our ancestors once actually did breed with another ‘race’, the Neanderthals! But as regards breeding. I have been for most of my life a livestock breeder – and I like to think a fairly good one. When you are ‘grading up’ livestock (from a base breed) to another breed (which we do all the time), you cross and recross (three times) until you have reached: first ½, then ¾, finally 7/8ths purity at which point they are considered to be ‘pure’ of the ‘new’ breed. This is because for each generation, for any individual gene (eg the black gene in sheep, deemed undesirable because of the cost of bleaching the wool before it is dyed, not because blacks are ‘inferior’) only half of the progeny carry the gene. The next generation only a quarter of the offspring carry it, the third generation only an eighth carry it – and so on. So to consider yourself one-eighth anything (whether convict or aboriginal – supposing such things were heritable, which they are not!) belies the fact that you have less than one-eighth chance of carrying the gene at all (indeed it might not have been present in all of the original stock). Rather you have aan 87.5% chance of not being ‘aboriginal (for example) at all. Yet you may claim ‘aboriginality’ under current legislation if you are one thirty-second (or less through ‘identification’). This is racist cant. It simply flies in the face of reason and science – let alone common decency. You should instead ‘get a life’ and ‘stand on your own two legs’. The only people who have any claim to ‘aboriginality’ are those (few) who are 100% ‘aboriginal’ whatever that may mean, but it is long since time such petty grievances and fanciful notions were put firmly behind us and we all faced life on equal terms: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/rita-panahi-how-latest-cultural-purge-is-rewriting-our-history/news-story/4ee01e60e662f8bff3a0cb87ccbf7320 & https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/11/jacques-barzun-on-affirmative-action-written-in-1956/

11/06/2020: The Last Straw: You can bend over the end of a drinking straw then if you fold it in along the middle slightly you can slip a cut off piece (say about 1" onto it to lock it in place. It will hold liquids such as iodine or sunscreen perfectly well, as well as powders such as salt, pepper and spices, or safety equipment such as matches, strikers, fore starters etc. I'm sure many other uses could be imagined. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/11/the-last-straw/

11/06/2020: Australia Felix (the fortunate’). Indeed: ‘Dawn over Mt William’, Von Guerrard’s vision. (PS: I often camp at the bottom of Von Guerrard creek in the Wonnangatta Valley, and when there I am always minded of his outstanding landscape paintings of beautiful remote places in Victoria. What a treasure they are). https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/reflections/2020/06/sacred-sites-or-forgotten-places/

11/06/2020: Mt Disappointment and the Wonnangatta ‘Murders’: I as stunned as you were that a two day ‘search’ by 400 people (obviously including the very same sort of ‘specialist’ police used in the Wonnangatta search) failed to find this 11 year old boy within less than 30 metres of clear going along the creek or adjacent to the Road 1. First the Herald Sun Photo. Then one taken from Google maps Satellite view, the third is also from Google maps showing the type of vegetation there.

Google Maps shows the distance from Road I to the creek to be approx 150 metres. You can’t imagine deer hunters taking more than 15 minutes to find a deer they had shot in that situation. Yet the searchers never found the boy even though he was not much more then 100 metres from his last seen location (not even the 300 metres the Herald Sun reports), barely out of sight, and you would definitely think a search would circle out from this location with the ‘known’ that lost children do not travel far and seek to hide in thick patches. Unsurprisingly he was found by a lone bushman who was not part of the official search. Well done Ben Gibbs.

This leads me to reprise Vicpol’s statement that the Wonnagatta ‘couple’ cannot be in the search area. Now while I think it is vanishingly unlikely that two older (experienced) people could both get lost and die close to a familiar camp, I can also see that Viocpol’s search protocols are absolutely hopeless. Vicpol is obviously largely headed up by and manned by complete idiots! I still think the most likely situation is that Russell and Carol were murdered and their bodies dumped, but after the finding of this child (if the gates were not now locked) I would be going up to the Wonnangatta myself for a few days to check out all the hollow trees and logs & etc in the vicinity of their campsite.

It just keeps happening, ie someone else finding the person (usually their body, alas) pretty much within sight of where they went missing - there have been several examples of this just in the last year alone. Vicpol's training and procedures need a serious shake up. I think clearly when someone goes missing Vicpol need immediately have procedures in place to to call on volunteers eg from Deer Hunting groups to search for them ie people who are used to actually being in the bush (without getting lost) and who are skilled at looking for things. Arrangements could be made for them to be paid for their loss of wages in just the same way as for volunteer fire fighters: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/bushman-hailed-a-hero-as-william-callaghan-found-on-mt-disappointment/news-story/831d6a10e6664bb954bb9f3dfbf5113c

11/06/2020: Experts:

10/06/2020: Skara Brae – What a wonder! https://archaeology-world.com/scottish-farmer-discovers-5000-year-old-lost-city/

0/06/2020: New Zealand is now free of Covid 19. Yesterday we had not a single case of community transmission. Right at the beginning of this epidemic (in December) I said we could avoid it, or eliminate it. It might be a good idea of the world paid a little more attention to what I say: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/virus-eliminated-nz-is-free/

10/06/2020: Few of us have no other ‘race’ in our genetic make-up. I know both Della and I do, as recently as our grandparents or great-grandparents - though it might not be obvious when you look at us, neither is it important to us one way or another: The only race we all belong to is the human race. It does not matter a jot whether you are black, white, orange, brindle or spotted - underneath we are all red. As Shylock says, ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?’ I would rather see more of the laughter. Listen to Morgan Freeman and others on this video, please: What The Left Won't Tell You About The Plight Of Black People And The Myth Of Systemic Racism: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=292609615461210 Everyone’s lives matter. BLM is a profoundly racist movement no different really than the racist ideology of the KKK and the Nazis – whom all our parents and grandparents fought a hugely destructive war (over sixty million lives lost) to defeat. It frightens me (as it would have Martin Luther King) that these people once more seek to divide us.' PS: As I watched the clips in the video from Martin Luther King’s speeches I was reminded starkly of what a fine spiritual, inspirational, intellectual man he was whose life was exemplary and whose memory deserves to be cherished. It contrasted so starkly with the wretched life and character of the man who is currently being lionized as to seem to me tantamount to sacrilege. I think too that King’s violent assassination was so unjust and intentionsl, such a bizarre contrast to the facts and intentions of his life and death (as so too Ghandi, Lennon etc) that to ‘celebrate’ Floyd’s life as compared with King’s life just shows how much civilization has crumbled.

10/06/2020: Richardson: The Australian Honours List should never have contained this man. What does it say about us that we ‘honour’ folk like this? https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/neil-chenoweth-in-the-afr-today-richo-the-zurich-philanthropist-.html

09/06/2020: Ultralight Pot Lifter: I found this enchanting post on a chat forum this morning: ‘For the last 5 years I’ve been needlessly carrying this extra 0.40 Oz with my Evernew titanium pot. Now I can manage just fine with one handle’. – thank you Wayne Adelkopf‎. I do admire the lateral thinking here. It is just such genius which made America great! And Britain before it! Now solimpply called the ‘UK’. I do prefer ‘Great Britain’!

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And .4 of an ounce is 11.5 grams (which, if you have been following A Lazy Man’s Guide to Hiking and Hunting works out like this: ‘A saving of 10 grams now doesn’t seem so silly does it when you see that it is the same as shifting 100 kg (200 lbs) one metre (yard)!’ In this case 115 kg – try lifting that! (or just over 250 pounds) – a not inconsiderable amount!

09/06/2020: Have you seen the ASX this morning? Up nearly 200 points in a few minutes. What a lovely sea of green! There is hope! People should understand that this represents and improvement in the nation's savings and investment in the future. Every worker has a tithe on their income paid into superannuation for their retirement much of which must and should be clearly invested in our leading enterprises. We all share in their prosperity, and our retirement income depends on it.

09/06/2020: Protestors spell out the word “love’ with burning homes. Fake news or no this is just incredible. No civilization can long survive (or tolerate) this sort of thing. It requires so much less energy to destroy a thing than build it. Clearly many people need a serious lesson in the value of hard work and thrift. Too many have lived too long with free stuff provided by the insane largess of the public purse. In a truly free market people would soon learn what their true worth to society was. I think a degree of suffering (of having to live hand-to-mouth for example) would be a salutary lesson for many of the coddled generation who can do such dreadful things. What really is the value of public servants and folks on welfare for example? Once what necessary public servants society thought they needed (very few) were well paid so as to discourage corruption (Sure, that worked). But now armies of them are created as a reward to the party hacks and rag-tag followers for no good reason at all, each performing meaningless tasks that are of no conceivable ‘good’ to society. Why, in the C19th it was clear that a schoolmaster ought to be paid such a wage as would enable him to support (in modest comfort) a wife and children because his value to society was such as to merit this ie imparting necessary skills such as literacy and numeracy and important social values such as hard work, integrity, self-worth, respect for others,m service to one’s country & etc. But so few even attempt to do that now that it would be much more reasonable to make it clear to them (a salutary lesson) that their value to society is really much less than that of a plumber or electrician and even less than a cleaner or day labourer! And we expect teachers to be doing some socially useful work whose meaning we understand. Not so the vast army (outnumbering the real army by a couple of orders of magnitude) of several million public servants. As to the welfared class (another several million), what is their ‘social worth’?…don’t get me started. http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/powerful-protesters-spell-out-love-with-burning-homes/

09/06/2020: The details about Christian Brueckner are just chilling and sickening. Surely the Left won’t make his prosecution another cause célèbre for hero worship like that of other scum they seem so fond of lately. I am just so disturbed by the awful reversals of values which appear to be going on all around me: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/madeleine-mccann-case-christian-brueckner-investigated-as-police-search-for-exgirlfriend/news-story/cf3e24ace7674716e94e6269970196c0

09/06/2020: Indeeed, let’s have a one month trial without police. I am all stocked up and ready, are you? I suspect that the shrieking, namby-pamby, limp-wristed leftist nutters clogging our streets at the moment and demanding the disbanding of police forces don’t realize that many of us own several .308s with which we could clear the streets of them pretty damned quickly if there were no police! https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/this-guy-changed-my-mind-lets-have-a-one-month-trial-with-no-police-give-him-a-go.html

08/06/2020: A Cure for Knee Pain? (Preliminary observations)‘Always listen to the experts – and then do something else’, as the old saying goes. I thought I had about tried just about everything with my knee/s (as with my back (in retrospect) and had about bitten the bullet that there was nothing for it but once again the dreaded knife – though I know that too is a solution replete with unsatisfactory outcomes, except for the surgeon’s new Porsche! The cold laser seemed to bring some relief, and an exercise cycle which I have not been as religious with using as I should (I’m sure an unsurprising revelation) had not been the ultimate panacea either, but a couple of scraps of information/wisdom niggled at the back of my mind. The orthopedic surgeon commented (aside) that they had no explanation why some folks were ‘bone on bone’ and yet free of pain (and disfunction) yet others not.. The same has been noticed about backs, and on autopsy of many other things besides. The body (and even more the mind) remains a great mystery still. Another person (referring to the benefits to be obtained from the cold laser device) said that I would (probably) have to learn to walk all over again. Like many simple truths such as ‘Give it time to heal’ one tends to ignore - when you begin to see some sort of benefit from something (such as the cold laser), and ‘less is more’ ie don’t overdo something which seems to have benefit. That is not necessarily how things work. Anyway I decided to have a go at learning to walk again. This is something (strangely enough) which I have emphasized again and again in my hunting advice – but one tends not always to listen to one’s own advice, or anyone else’s! Strange! About ten days ago I decided to try it out though. Now, particularly my left knee has hurt for the last seven years every time I put it down, so I thought, ‘What if I am putting it down wrongly?’ & ‘Can I walk without pain?’ So I decided to experiment. Like the hunting walking I always advocate, ‘Softly, softly’ is the way to go. Can I just glide ahead with as little impact as possible, taking small steps and walking on my‘toes’ (at least the balls of my feet) instead of clumping down with my heels as people are wont to do – with no pain. The answer is that I can. It may be (is) slower, and it may look strange. I have never been over-much concerned about what odd ideas others may have anyway. I long ago eschewed the common throng anyway – as Horace advised long ago (‘Odi profanum vulgus et arceo’). I have now switched to my Topo walking shoes (because they have no heels and so facilitate this odd method of locomotion), but…So far I have walked completely without pain for ten days! This is good! Try it! PS: Something I failed to mention: Never straighten your knee, or 'lock' it backwards. People often do this when they are standing. Always maintain the bent shape of the knee. Stand on your muscles, ligaments etc, not on your joints. They were never 'designed' to stand this sort of mistreatment. So too back. I have learned (now) that the chief cause of back pain is poor stance and weakening of core body muscles. PPS: Read also my previous ‘report about cold lasers here: I Kneed You Knee arthritis is ‘associated’ with inflamation. Evidently ‘no-one knows’ whether the inflamation is the cause of the arthritis or vice-versa or whether they just occur together. The pain however in my experience does not seem to be doing me ‘any good’. I endure it because I either value the aciviuty that brings it on (hiking, hunting etc) or need to do the thing that seems to bring it on eg work, for some other reason. But if I can go about my business whatever it is without the pain I would choose to do it. I only did not know that I could avoid the pain whilst remaining active. (Too much sitting has its negatives too). But this ‘creeping about’ I am doing at present allows me to do things I want or need to do without endureing the pain so to me it is a win-win – whether it is actually ‘doing me any good’ – whaterer that may mean I leave to the philosophers and the shamans.

08/06/2020: Peaceful Protest: only 27 Police Officers Injured! This from the BBC, clearly just as bad as our awful ABC. Is this the end of Western Civilisation? Police officers are assaulted and injured whilst carrying out their duties of protecting the public, and the culprits are not made to pay dearly? All this in defence of a piece of multiple-times gaoled criminal scum caught out of his head on drugs, carrying drugs, whilst committing a criminal offence, wandering the streets knowingly infected with Covid 19, resisting arrest...Why , I think it would be perfectly reasonable to shoot down a mad dog like that in the street on sight without further ado. No matter what race sex or creed they were. And that it would be a public service to do so - which might attract a modest reward! PS: I like that the horse bolted into the demonstrators. Good idea horse. Too bad the police rider was injured though. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-52954899

08/06/2020: White lives matter? ‘If you are getting arrested by the police for a violent crime, your chances of being killed by the cops are greater if you are white then if you are black. In 2015, for every thousand white people arrested for a violent crime, four white people were killed by police. In 2015, for every thousand black people arrested for a violent crime, two black people were killed by police.’ https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/02/watching-violence-in-black-and-white/ & http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/35078-Is-it-your-protest-strategy-to-piss-me-off.html

08/06/2020: When Greens seize power reason and freedom take a back seat - German officials threaten Naomi Seibt with prison for ‘denialism’: ‘Hello, everyone. My name is Naomi Seibt and I am a new member at the Heartland Institute. And I’ve got very good news for you. The world is not ending because of climate change. In fact, 12 years from now we will still be around, casually taking photos on our iPhone 18s, Tweeting about the current President on Twitter and ranting about the latest celebrity gossip. However, we are currently being force-fed a very dystopian agenda of climate alarmism that tells us that we as humans are destroying the planet and that the young people especially have no future: that the animals are dying, that we are ruining nature.

I truly believe that many members of Antifa, Fridays for Future groups, Rebellion Extinction, I really believe that many of them have good intentions but they are genuinely scared of the world ending, and scared that their parents and grandparents are ruining the planet, that it’s breaking relationships, it’s breaking up families, and we at the Heartland Institute, we want to spread truth about the science behind climate realism, which is essentially the opposite of climate alarmism.

Many people are now actually developing mental disorders, and referring to it as eco-anxiety and eco-depression. And I believe it is important that we act now and change this entire mainstream narrative of fear-mongering and climate alarmism, because it’s basically just holding us hostage in our own brains.

With all of that said, don’t let an agenda that is trying to depict you as an energy-sucking leech on the planet get into your brain and take away all of your passionate spirit.

I don’t want you to panic. I want you to think.’ https://junkscience.com/2020/05/monckton-german-officials-threaten-naomi-seibt-with-prison-for-denialism/

07/06/2020: Ultralight Ultracheap Deer Hunting & Some Ripping Yarns: I am often approached by prospective deer hunters for advice, particularly about what they need to acquire before beginning hunting. How little both in weight and dollars do you need to spend (supposing you already actually own nothing – unlikely)? I have put together here some suggestions (with links to previous posts).

Here is a photo from many years ago (c1990) of me with a young stag taken off my foxhounds at the bottom of Deep Creek near Walhalla, Gippsland. Note ex-army boots, woolen trousers (patched), Aussie Disposals shirt & hat. The deer would have been shot with my old SMLE. One shot. Thirty yards. It is dead right where it was running. (More about this at bottom of page). Lesson: You don’t need to spend a fortune to (successfully) hunt deer: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/06/ultralight-ultracheap-deer-hunting/

07/06/2020: I very much fear there can be any justice for officers who struggled to apprehend and restrain drug crazed criminal George Floyd as he perpetuated his latest in a life of violent anti-social criminal mayhem and nihilism. Only the weirdest of lunatic Leftist revisionism could make him out a hero. Why blame the man for his vile conduct when you can blame the most wonderful society that has ever existed on earth?

07/06/2020: Folks are calling the BLM activists who smash things, assault the police, burn buildings, loot etc ‘anarchists’. I have no doubt there are some among their number who even style themselves such – but it is not so. The heirs of this C19th philosophy are not such philistines as these but your local cricket club, church and credit union who run their own affairs cooperatively with the willing participation of their members. That is what ‘anarchism’ really is. The perception that individuals acting collectively have no need to create or have an over-riding government. Frankly, such 'anarchy' is a good idea. There should be more of it, not less. As for the rabid abuse, smashing and looting - the people should quite properly take this matter into their own hands and bring a quick and fatal stop to it. It is not the right of the mindless mob to destroy what the quiet labor of many have faithfully built.

06/06/2020: A Hiking Food Compendium: Folks are always asking me, ‘What do you eat on the trail?’ I have posted about this again and again, but I just thought I would bring all my posts about this together as one compendium. When you get tired of eating all these you could just quit life or hiking I guess. These are mostly our own recipes (tried and true). I have freshened this post up a lot (04/06/2020)

A couple of these are to enjoy at home, but most are from dry ingredients which make the meal as light as possible (calories per gram is all!) and use supermarket bought rather than specialty hiking meals as they are both cheaper and tastier in my opinion: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/05/a-hiking-food-compendium/

06/06/2020: 06/06/2020: Let’s all Pretend: ‘Let’s all pretend that people still playing pretend beyond their 11th birthday say anything worth listening to...Let’s all pretend a Republican now serves as mayor of Minneapolis rather than for one day out of the last 59 years. Let’s all pretend Democrats do not enjoy a political monopoly over every big city plagued by the worst violence. Let’s all pretend white supremacists and Nazis and Russians destroyed American cities rather than the people who vote for the people saying white supremacists and Nazis and Russians destroyed American cities. Let’s all pretend that one cop’s inhumanity indicts the entirety of law enforcement but many activists’ violence says nothing about the protests… Let’s all pretend that a drugged-out man, who had just ripped off a store, with a long history of addiction and violent crime, including a home invasion in which he pressed a gun to a Hispanic woman’s stomach, demanded drugs and money, and ransacked her house as an accomplice pistol-whipped her, amounts to this generation’s Emmett Till’ https://spectator.org/americas-make-believe-moment-george-floyd-minneapolis-riots/ Candace Owens: ‘People out here really trying to make a meth and fentanyl user who dropped a white baggie during his arrest, and who once put a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach -- and did 5 stints in prison -- the next Martin Luther King. I really cannot.’ Frankly anyone who thinks George Floyd does not deserve to be dead is seriously deluded!

06/06/2020: I have been advocating this for years: ‘If Australia is to survive and prosper, we need to close down Canberra. Just shut it down and send the departments and public servants to the 4 winds. Let the buildings remain empty as a monument to remind us of the costly errors made.’ https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/01/clusters/

06/06/2020: It’s not us you see: Humans do Ultimate Paris Lockdown, CO2 hits record high anyway: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/humans-do-ultimate-paris-lockdown-co2-hits-record-high-anyway/ Enjoy your Aircon and your SUV. Have a nice day!

05/06/2020: Surely Minneapolis, Of All Places, Must Have Cured Racism By Now? It is as far Left in the US (and always has been) and not be in the Peopele’s Republic of China or etc: https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-6-2-surely-minneapolis-of-all-places-must-have-cured-racism-by-now

05/06/2020: You may have thought day-old bread was pretty bad (29/5), but how about this 2,000 year old pita loaf: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58774 earlier post: (https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/29/english-bread-regulations-in-the-18th-century/)

05/06/2020: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: I think this headline: ‘The Morrison Government's Scheme for Some Taxpayers to Pay for Other Taxpayers Home Renovations’ from Michael Smith’s excellent blog says it all!

05/06/2020: A Sense of Proportion: I guess the core thing about being ‘conservative’ (being ‘normal’ as I would view it is) a sense of proportion. Things having their place. Making an appropriate response to things. Measured. Considered. Not rushing hastily to ‘radical’ reactions or behaviours. Lots of things ‘offend’ me as being ‘out of place’, ‘inappropriate’ or just ‘bad manners’ as we once used to style it – though I do not ‘take offence’ – as has become fashionable.. I find for example that ‘snowflakes’ as we sometimes style a generation or type of person who can’t perhaps even take a mild joke (against themselves) can simultaneously rejoin with the vilest rejoinders or even violence. I had an example of that on one of my websites of just yesterday: I rejoined with a mild joke towards a young person who (refusing to bother reading carefully what I had written) had made one of your typical smart-aleck uninformed comments. His rejoinder was to (first) claim that I had started it (ie no sense of responsibility for his own actions) then launch into a (mildly unpleasant) ad hominem attack (‘attack’ is the right word). His behaviour was quite out of proportion (Badly brought up’ we once would have said) which I pointed out to him - on which he took his bat and ball and went away – but without offering an apology (still harbouring those bad manners, you see). I don’t ‘enjoy’ the news every morning because it is ‘reported’ by dreadfully one-eyed people with an axe to grind speaking in a dreadfully aggressive tone, emphasizing all the wrong words – or all the words (in a wholly inappropriate manner). Just basically beating me about the head with the news in a manner which once was reserved only for the ‘opinion’ pages, and even there in a much milder, more civilized manner. Of course here I am talking about the ABC/SBS mainly but we get ‘feed’ from all these other news ‘services’ where the like contagion seems to have taken over too. So with this ‘George Floyd’ phenomenon. Everything about it is totally out of proportion. Of course it is a pity when an alleged criminal dies in police custody or whilst being apprehended. It is also a pity when a policeman dies whilst performing like duties of arresting or detaining alleged criminals and the like. Neither of these are things most people would want happening but most people understand that though most everyone will want to and try to prevent them happening that nonetheless they will sometimes happen. That when they do they will be investigated in the normal way and if charges or other remedial action are needed this will occur, and finally if justice requires some punishment that this will happen too. We also understand that along the way there will be appropriate processes, rights of appeal and so on. Blowing one such event out of all proportion (even exaggerating it to the level of ‘tragedy’) just dismays me. When I see vast crowds of people inflamed (by such a mundane event even to acts of violence, pillage and looting and innocent people killed (not petty criminals) as a result of it (and its reporting) I almost despair. I would so like people to regain a sense of proportionate response to things. PS: I also lament degrading of language: a ‘Tragedy’ is when we (slowly & in detail) witness a worthy individual destroyed by forces (even his own character) beyond his control – it’s not just finding a body in the street or on the beach!

04/06/2020: Born With a Wooden Spoon in My Mouth: If your wife loses your ultralight titanium/aluminium hiking spoon whilst doing the washing up (while you are folding up the tent) in the Franklin-Gordon wilderness (as my lovely wife, Della did - and she will never be allowed to forget it, poor thing!) or a similar disaster strikes, then it might be a good idea to be carrying a spare...but one can hardly be expected to heft the extra enormous weight of another 9 grams, so here is a lovely 2 gram hiking spoon. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/06/04/born-with-a-wooden-spoon-in-my-mouth/

04/06/2020: Wonderful objects out there waiting: an Einstein Ring. What next a Dyson Sphere? https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/03/astronomers-find-cosmic-golden-needle-buried-for-two-decades/

04/06/2020: The Genius of Mathematics: Just hard to believe how brilliant some people are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan & https://www.popularmechanics.com/…/conway-knot-problem-sol…/ See (Stephen Fry) film: The Man Who Knew Infinity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlXHwMgS06c Something to watch tonight when there is nothing worthwhile on TV!

04/06/2020: Yes we need a Royal Commission into the ABC. It is violently biased. It urgently needs to be reformed or abolished – so too SBS: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/02/we-urgently-need-a-royal-commission-into-the-abc/ All protests should be suspended until the curve of violence is flattened: http://americandigest.org/all-protests-should-be-suspended-until-the-curve-of-violence-is-flattened/

03/06/2020: A 9 kg Rabbit – and I did not even know you could house-train a coney: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home/pets/giant-pet-rabbit-cocoa-puff-almost-as-big-as-kids-photo/news-story/42c54a8d677a820bc37a98f99d3b990d

03/06/2020: About time: Prestigious medical journal urges outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine regimen for COVID-19: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/hydroxychloroquine-plus-azithromycin?fbclid=IwAR3Nwk4ZxzCWzSq23TgQQapN8G6sscFGXVZeiDBhH8_nTThaR-CGb4y_iwA BTW: Looks like I will be getting out the sheep drench of Coronavirus hits around here. Trials show it is very effective with patients well after just four days: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/06/ivermectin-kills-headlice-and-also-coronavirus-in-a-few-early-trials/

03/06/2020: Rita Panahi: ‘One of Trump’s greatest assets is being blessed with deeply stupid enemies…Dozens of police officers have been attacked during the nationwide protests and at least six people have died, including African-American federal officer Patrick Underwood, but there’ll be no protests for his unlawful killing…The media…seem proudly clueless about the fact most Americans care about law and order and don’t want thugs, Antifa criminals or other anti-police activist groups terrorising them with impunity. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/rita-panahi/rita-panahi-trumps-moves-soothe-lawabiding-americans/news-story/57ec1206093ee6f1d557c2c17577aef5 To avenge (the criminal) George Floyd, Joe Biden’s supporters murdered (worthy) black Americans Dave Patrick Underwood and David Dorn: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/03/they-aint-black/ I also like this (black lady) store owner’s take on ‘black lives matter’: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/black-woman-in-new-york-with-lecture-for-black-lives-matter-thugs.html

02/06/2020: My Kind of Sheriff Too: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/my-kinda-sheriff-our-people-like-have-guns-if-you-try-to-break-into-their-homes-im-recommending-they.html

02/06/2020: Keep up with your Vitamin C. As well as Vitamin D and Zinc Vitamin C really can cure acute respiratory illnesses: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/31/vitamin-c-in-covid-19-prevention/ NB: Vitamin D and Zinc Sulphate to prevent or cure Covid 19: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/04/vitamin-d3-and-the-chinese-virus-coronavirus/ & http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/race-to-cure-covid/

02/06/2020: I was glad to hear Trump call out Xi the other morning. The Communist dictatorship in China must end. It has brutally murdered at least a hundred million people, kept a billion people in the most awful tyranny and held that population in unnecessary poverty. Look at what the Chinese in Singapore, Taiwan (and once) Hong Kong have done without communism. If Trump succeeds in ending this awful tyranny as Reagan ended communism in Russia it will be his greatest achievement. Indeed the greatest political achievement in a century: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/29/do-people-generally-know-what-the-initials-ccp-stands-for/ Xi is beating the nationalist drum because he fears a rebellion at home. His troops have even just invaded part of India: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52852509?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR22WTvlPl5UZOMX46oy4o0v6DkDd1YdVuGsv9kkwsFpAiCnx2sB3gRMIE8 And note this too: Another ‘smoking gun’ for coronavirus shows it probably emanates from a Chinese Government laboratory. Xi is a monster: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-may-have-been-created-in-a-wuhan-lab-genetic-engineering-experiment/news-story/6e0a211af696fa2f30d5e7306dbf4780

02/06/2020: My Kind of Sheriff Too: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/06/my-kinda-sheriff-our-people-like-have-guns-if-you-try-to-break-into-their-homes-im-recommending-they.html

02/06/2020: No, mindless insurrection is not ‘peaceful protest: https://www.weaselzippers.us/449653-black-firefighter-spent-his-life-savings-to-open-a-bar-then-minneapolis-looters-burned-it-down/ Fair Point Steve Kates: ‘My understanding of what took place is that that this chap Floyd commits some crime, gets arrested, resists arrest, is held down in a dangerously illegal way and dies. Autopsy says there were other factors in his death but still, we can all accept that in some important sense the cop well-exceeded permissible limits. So he should be suspended, prosecuted and if convicted jailed. No element in this story seems about the fact that George Floyd was black and the police were white. And then there are riots and looting, and the most interesting part of the scenes of looting is that not one of the looters appeared to be even slightly in fear of their lives, or even in fear of being arrested. What’s the plan going forward? To forbid a black person to be arrested by the police? To allow mobs to burn your cities down? What principle of justice follows from any of this that should now be introduced that wasn’t there before?’ https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/06/01/nihilism-on-the-streets-of-america/

01/06/2020: A Lazy Man’s Guide to Hiking and Hunting: Work equals force by distance, where a single newton of force represents the amount of force needed to move one kilogram one meter. The equivalent imperial unit is the foot-pound which is self-explanatory.

Image: Sisyphus: ‘In Greek mythology Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the king of Ephyra. He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.’ Wikipedia

An example, if you chose a pair of shoes which each weighs 100 grams (1/10^th of a kilogram) more (than another shoe) and you walk 20,000 half metre steps in a day, you have moved the equivalent of an extra tonne (1,000kg) during the course of the day (.1 x .5 x 20,000) a distance of one metre.

That is a lot of extra effort. If I asked you to shovel a tonne of manure from this pile here to that one a metre away there you would think it was a lot of work, and maybe wouldn’t want to do much else for the rest of the day! (It would be a pile approximately a cubic metre/yard say 3′ x3′ x 3′). But that’s just what 100 grams in each of a pair of shoes adds up to, yet you are likely carrying several kilogramss extra somewhere in your kit! How many tonnes of s—t is that? https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/31/a-lazy-mans-guide-to-hiking-and-hunting/

01/06/2020: Mars Here We Come. Go Dragon. (thirty seconds in): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZolorqY2AM

01/06/2020: ‘New’ Games With Irving Finkel: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58766

01/06/2020: Black Lives Don’t Matter. This is racist cant. Everyone’s lives, liberty and property matter. Neither am I denying right to peaceful protest but when protest becomes riot involving property damage, assaults on police and other persons such behaviour must be stamped out immediately if necessary by the reading of the ‘Riot Act’ followed by shooting directly into the crowd if they refuse to disperse – what the ‘Riot Act’ involves. I am also tired of the ‘excuses’ for such anti-social behaviour. If police sometimes act wrongly (or appear to) both of which are inevitable though every effort should be (and is) made to avoid them, the law must nonetheless be allowed to take its course. It took a year before a (black) policeman was charged with the murder of a (white) Australian for example, but in the present case it only took four days for a (white) policeman to be charged with the murder of a (black) man. There are (apparently) no other colours! The respective races of perpetrators and victims are properly irrelevant. Justice needs to take its course. There are also avenues of appeal and a right to peaceful protest if it appears not to be doing so, but this wholesale (organized) mayhem (by the extreme Left) is another matter entirely - and Trump gave one of his best speeches ever about it (and other things): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWQTv4v3aDI&feature=emb_title PS: I do not think what is happening is what Abraham Lincoln meant by this, ‘This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.’ 1st inaugural address.

31/05/2020: 1400 Posts: My daughter Merrin started this blog for me four years ago on 26 May 2016 so I am surprised I/we have been so busy, but today this is my 1400th post! Just thought I would take a few lines to highlight the last 100 posts which have occurred over the last six months or so: I guess the highlight in our memories of the last 100 was our walk on the Everest Base Camp Trail back in November 2019. Now read on: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/30/1400-posts/

31/05/2020: Wonnagatta Murders (cont): A tiny bit of new information in the Herald-Sun this morning: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/missing-campers-time-frame-narrowed-to-18hour-window/news-story/f14372ce134482e3ae4c265c01284d82

Police have narrowed the time frame a little. ‘Mr Hill talked via his radio with a friend at about 6.30pm on March 20…He spoke only briefly because darkness was descending and he wanted to set up the camp site. The next day, other High Country visitors came across their camp at about 2pm. They saw fire had destroyed a tent and camp furniture and had also scorched the side of Mr Hill’s Toyota LandCruiser. Those passers-by believe it had been out long enough to have gone cold. It was not smoking at that point... search and rescue squad officers, who have run major operations in the surrounding area, were convinced they would have found some trace of the friends if they were still there… it was possible something had gone wrong while the pair were out exploring the bush. But both getting into the kind of trouble which led to death was less likely… Investigators are now trying to track every person who was in the area.. there were a lot of people in the High Country that weekend… Mr Hill had been in the King Billy and Bluff Track area from March 13 to 16 on a separate solo visit with his new drone. He also took the drone on the trip with Ms Clay the next week… Anyone with any other information on the disappearance or who has any CCTV or dashcam footage can call Crime Stoppers.’

Sunset occurred on March 20 at Mt Hotham Vic at 7:22pm Twilight at 7:48pm https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/australia/melbourne?month=3&year=2020 Deep in the Wonnangatta Valley (which runs roughly North-South) and close up against the Western side in the narrow Dry Creek Valley, sunset/twilight would occur much earlier, at least an hour. When Russell said it was ‘getting dark’ so he could not talk for long that was right. After setting up camp there was definitely no time to fly, lose and search for a drone. If he had lost it before he would have mentioned that fact in his radio call and that he was about to go look for it (as well as setting up camp – impossible). If he had done so early in the morning they would never have been ‘lost’. They were not ‘lost. They were murdered and dumped.

‘The fire was cold…it was not smoking.’ The people who found the camp would have seen or smelled smoke/burning plastic (at the campsite) if the fire had occurred soon before 2pm, say since 10-11am. There is usually very little wind in the Wonnangatta valley The wind almost always blows from the West (when it does) but it reverses direction for a brief time around about dawn. A morning fire (quite a lot of black smoke from burning poly, vinyl canvas, sleeping bags etc) would hang low in the air all morning. (It takes quite while for the fog to lift (not until after 10 am usually) so even a fire at 8-9 should still have smoke hanging around at 1 pm as the people who found the camp were driving up or down the valley on their way in. I think it unlikely the fire occurred in the morning.

‘Search and rescue squad officers…were convinced they would have found some trace of the friends if they were still there’ exactly. They have been removed from the scene.

I suspect the murder and the fire occurred the night before in the tent probably after they had gone to bed and that their bodies were removed that night probably back up the Zeka Spur (the most likely place to dump them). Lots of people (almost all) arrive in the Wonnangatta on Saturday morning. Most people come up the Howitt Road and turn off at the Zeka Spur or they come in from Eaglevale. The couple came down the Zeka Spur (They came through Licola). Morning would be the worst time to (successfully) murder someone. If you did it under cover of darkness though and because you were already in the valley before dark and knew there were no other campers about (or who would see a fire) that is another matter.

You had followed them in from where they had camped on the night of the 19th probably the King Billy ‘Crossroads’ as Russell had camped there only a week before when he was planning this trip – Where they camped, moved (ie the couple’s movements on the 19th and 20th) is a crucial bit of information which there may be evidence for. The couple drove down the Zeka Spur in daylight with this person following (at a distance) behind them. Someone camped on the tops (eg at Howitt or Guy’s Hut) might have seen these two vehicles (or even have dashcam footage’ – which the police are seeking). They were either followed down the Howitt Rd to the Zeka Spur turn off (probably by a stranger) or up it (by someone known to them).

Once it was dark you could be sure of that no other campers were about ie no lights) and make your move. Approach on foot using the red light on your head torch. It would be easy to hit two elderly people over the heads with eg the back of an axe when they were lying in their swags. Easy enough to bring your ute up, drag them into the back, smooth over your tracks with a branch, set fire to the tent, make sure every trace was burned away (five minutes) - and be off up the Zeka Spur having already selected somewhere you could safely dump the bodies ie somewhere you can safely stop – there are lots of steep pinches where this would not be easy. You would also want to be able to see lights approaching, so not near a ‘blind’ bend. Possibly there is even a spot where you can get a vehicle off the road? Safer. I haven’t paid that much attention when I have driven up/down it (only a couple of times). I almost always drive in from Eaglevale (canoeing) or I walk in from the Moroka.

You could not afford to take the bodies downriver (too much chance of running into other campers) or out onto the Howitt Rd - ditto, clear country and a chance of a police/DELWP roadblock checking cars and hunting licences. So, the Zeka Spur almost certainly.

Clearly though (then) their bodies were also dumped (probably) on the Zeka Spur in the dark possibly using infra red lights (again) for concealment, as to do so in the early morning would invite discovery – as this is when ‘everyone’ arrives. (This is a fairly ‘professional’ job. Planned). It would be a tricky thing to conceal two bodies fairly quickly and well in the dark. If they are buried they will not have been buried deeply – and wild dogs may have scattered the site, somewhat making it easier to find now A careful search along the sides of that track may pay big dividends. The murderer should really go back and move them or check that they are well concealed, as when they are found lots of new evidence will be available to police.

PS: Russell's (though patchy) phone records and the drone footage on his home computer should confirm where he camped. From there it is an easy step to forensically examine the campsite for DNA traces (eg buried faeces) to confirm the spot - and whether anyone else's DNA is there too! Then police can recontruct the events precisely and the likely timing. I find it surprising that they did not arrive at Dry Creek until nearly dark on the 20th given that they left Pakenham at 7:30 am on the 19th - and presumably passed through Licola that day. (Talking t someone?)

The Howitt Road is much busier though than around King Billy etc. Whenever I have been up there someone comes by every few minutes so there ought to be lots of people who saw two cars (the first Russell's distinctive white Landcruiser) the second the murderer's) passing by clearly in daylight hours. From the time they arrived at Russell's (clearly planned) camp (say 6:00pm) you can guess they must have turned down the Zeka Track around 4:00pm, meaning they passed the Howitt Hut or Dimmick's Lookout just before then. There are so often people about up there. You would think someone must have seen them.

As well, the patchy phone records should show a 'handshake with Russell - and Carol's phone simultaneously. Likely the very next phone is the murderer, providing he had a phone. (When I had my CDMA phone it used to say what tower you were connected to - up there it would likely be the Hotham one). So, unless the police are exceedingly dim-witted (not impossible) they should know who the murderer is. His phone will also have 'shaken hands' with the transmitter sometime perhaps around midnight on the way out (when no-one else would be moving about)! The phone record is not enough (as we saw in the Ristevski case even when the murderer was the husband) but once they have the bodies and some other DNA evidence, he will be sprung - and we can all take to going back to the Wonnangatta camping safely!

31/05/2020: Time our pollies caught up with Mexico’s President who has banned all new ‘renewable’ connections to the grid: ‘These wind turbines mess up the landscape, produce little energy and are owned by private companies that are subsidized for it. One of the typical scams of the neoliberals’. You betcha: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/23/mexican-president-pulls-the-plug-on-renewable-energy-one-of-the-typical-scams-of-the-neoliberals/

31/05/2020: Ain’t it the truth? God I hate the luvvies of the ABC and such: The ABC asks: What did the Queen know about Gough Whitlam’s dismissal? She knew Australians loved it: Fraser by a majority of 55 – the largest in Australian history – against the ‘great Gough Whitlam’. What an ass!

https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/30/she-knew-australians-loved-it/

30/05/2020: Keweisi USB Amp Tester: This is a really handy piece of gear (18 grams). After you have bought it/them you are going to be throwing out a heap of other things! It measures the voltage and amperage through itself when plugged into a USB outlet and can time and add the total so that you can see how long it took to attain a certain number of milliamp hours of storage. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/30/keweisi-usb-amp-tester/

30/05/2020: Who would have thought? Tiny plankton drive processes in the ocean that capture twice as much carbon as scientists thought. But 70% of the world is ocean: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/25/tiny-plankton-drive-processes-in-the-ocean-that-capture-twice-as-much-carbon-as-scientists-thought/ Where does it go when it’s cold: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/24/study-ancient-ocean-oxygen-levels-associated-with-changing-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide/

30/05/2020: CDC: Coronavirus fatality rate could be as low as 0.26%: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/cdc-says-coronavirus-infection-fatality-rate-could-be-low-026-nearly & Former Israeli Health Minister: The COVID-19 Response Has Been “Monstrous Hysteria” Reaching to the Irrational: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/former-israeli-health-minister-covid-19-response-monstrous-hysteria-reaching-irrational/

30/05/2020: Have to Agree With This: Andrews is an Economic Fool: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/27/daniel-andrews-is-an-economic-fool/

29/05/2020: Cookset Solutions: Today I am using the Gnomatic alcohol simmer stove below. It is available for US$25 (May 2020) plus freight and weighs 19 grams with the simmer ring. It is just about the best alcohol stove and simmer stove I have ever owned, and you do not have to worry about accidents because it is virtually spill-proof (because of the carbon felt inside) and wonderfully easy to light from the top (first time every time) without burning your fingers. Just make a flat level space on the ground with your thumb.

I have is set up inside a Trail Designs Caldera Cone (31 grams in this size). It fits either of my two pots the Evernew deep pot with frypan lid 900 ml at 123 grams (for one) or the Toaks Titanium 1100 ml at 156 grams (for two – big enough for us anyway. Both weights are including the lid. BTW If you need a second plate these are the cheapest and lightest I have found).

You also need two eg titanium shepherd’s hook tent pegs (total about 11 grams). https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/29/cookset-solutions/

29/05/2020: Why They banned fresh Bread: When we lived in NZ in 1975 this was a thing. You couldn’t buy fresh bread (or butter that wasn’t rancid – or practically anything else. Things are better there now, (despite Ardern) but: https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/29/english-bread-regulations-in-the-18th-century/

29/05/2020: What is our military for? An astonishing insight: http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/35047-The-Last-Six-Seconds.html

29/05/2020: So RIO has blown up some ‘aboriginal’ site in the Pilbara: Practically every night on SBS there is a doco about excavating old sites in London/Melbourne etc from which much can be learned before a new multi-story building is constructed over them. At the moment they are working on digging up an old graveyard Sydney's Central Station was built over. I know that my great aunt is buried there. (My grandfather knew her – and inherited her dough!) I have not objected (nor should I) though I do intend to contact them in case they find her and have learned something I didn't know. Millions of people will benefit every year from the improvements to Central Station, so too the iron mining in the Pilbara!

28/05/2020: Astonishing: A Loon With the Heart of an Eagle: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52779727

28/05/2020: Michael Moore’s new documentary, Planet of the Humans’ which just says about ‘renewables’ what the rest of us have know forever has been banned everywhere. This is what happens to you when you fall out with the green left who dominate social media platforms, wikipedia, the mainstream media etc, etc.: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/youtube-censorship-gone-wild-removing-michael-moores-documentary/ PS: You can still watch it her for free: https://www.bitchute.com/video/KQnVEMOOYuJd/

28/05/2020: Wonnangatta again: Vicpol seems to believe in fairies, alien abductions and such. Evidently they are seeking to eliminate the possibility that Russell and Carol won several million in the lottery, decided to run off together yet instead of simply doing just that, changed their bank accounts and identities, Russell planted another 4WD (by himself?) somewhere in the Wonnangatta then they drove out via Eaglevale and Black Snake Creek. Just possibly this was quite another ‘elderly couple’ who (like us) do not consider themselves particularly ‘elderly’ and so would not necessarily come forward even in the (likely) scenario that they had taken a quiet drive up the Wonnangatta Rd on March 22^nd. Apparently (unsurprisingly) they were not seen in the Wonnangatta Valley. Of course Vicpol does have to eliminate all the possibilities (however remote). It is very revealing though how interested they are in the doings in the Mt Howitt-Zeka Track area and in exactly when the fire occurred – as am I: https://www.police.vic.gov.au/appeal-visitors-wonnangatta-area-contact-police-investigation-missing-campers-continues?fbclid=IwAR3gSY2K87_AWOo96lV3d2Etltue8e1QbFjH6dV61TJwn2c2gWOWe0QcniE

27/05/2020: Neat Ultralight USB Light: These are an interesting emergency light at just a couple of grams each . They plug straight in to your ultralight power bank. Some of them have a touch switch. They are not as energy efficient as these 11 gram rechargeables but would make a good spare. You can buy them from Jaycar for A$9.95 for three: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/26/neat-ultralight-usb-light/

27/05/2020: Wonnangatta Murders: The Plot thickens: ‘Detectives have been able to confirm Mr Hill was camping alone in the area of the King Billy and Bluff Track between March 11 and 13. He was in his white Toyota LandCruiser and had his DJI Mavic drone with him on that trip.’ https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/fresh-clues-in-missing-camper-search/news-story/32245606102ef8be1505315f434bb8b9 This is indeed ‘The Crossroads’ the Button Man’s haunt mentioned in the earlier Age article where he was the last person to see missing lone hiker Niels Becker . What did Russell discover with that drone (or possibly discover) that led someone to stalk and kill them both? A marijuana plantation perhaps? (on top of a mountain?) Seems unlikely. Illegal wildlife trapping/trafficking? Something more sinister? I hope police are having a good look around that area. And looking for the dumped bodies adjacent to the tracks leading to/from the Wonnangatta where deer hunters or others are unlikely/forbidden to venture. PS: I have probably mentioned this before, but the only place they could be (and not be found) is in a hollow tree. It is vaguely possible that if they were sitting up (dead) inside a such a tree the wild dogs would not have approached them and scattered their bodies/clothing. However surely professional search teams are told to particularly check (look back when passing) such trees. I still think the chance of this being innocent is less than in a million. I wonder where they camped on he way up there? Did Russell go back to the Crossroads? NB: Button Man clearly has a 'thing' about people taking pictures. remember the story in the original Age story about his taking photographs of the photographer with his own camera while he slept.

Thanks for the link to your photos. (https://www.facebook.com/gerard.white.7/media_set?set=a.828773063845809&type=3&hc_location=ufi). I do intend to do posts about your trip in the future (and indeed have made a beginning - it is an enormous task!) The photos give something of an idea of the type of country where the Button Man has his camp and why someone might fly a drone there - just great scenic footage - nothing illegal needs to have been discovered. Just that the photography (twice perhaps) irrationally annoyed him - of course the murderer could also be a third person. I think the post March 20th 'sightings' are certainly of someone else - unless she 'hitched' out of there to Black Snake - but then she would have turned up at home! A murder/suicide is indeed possible, but you have to think of the unlikelihood of neither of their bodies being found in a search. it is one thing to hide someone else's body; much harder to hide your own.

I certainly think the fire was deliberate. However, the scenarios you envisage of she and Russell separating up there are very unlikely for elderly people who are good friends. If she 'wandered off' she would surely have followed a track and would have been picked up on the 20th. Either Russell has done this - but no bodies - or someone else. The link to the 'Crossroads' is very suspicious at the moment. I would like to know whether when the campsite was found burned out (2pm on the 20th it seems) whether people saw smoke in the sky ('Plastic' smoke hangs around quite a while - as does the smell) or if it was still warm/smouldering etc. Knowing whether the fire occurred that day or the night before is so crucial. Also was the drone controller at the campsite? Anything else interesting missing/present? One of Oz's great mysteries...

"The Crossroads" looking north from Mt Clear Track...King Billy Track to the right, Brocks Rd to the left. Bluff Track straight. There's a weather station somewhere to the right apparently that's where Button Man camps. The AAWT heads up just to the right of Bluff Track. This is at the base of King Billy No.2 straight ahead.

Police are seeking information: https://www.police.vic.gov.au/appeal-visitors-wonnangatta-area-contact-police-investigation-missing-campers-continues?fbclid=IwAR3gSY2K87_AWOo96lV3d2Etltue8e1QbFjH6dV61TJwn2c2gWOWe0QcniE

Crime Writer Andrew Rule Gives Some Details On The Mystery “Button Man” In The Victorian High Country On the Hot Breakfast: https://www.triplem.com.au/story/crime-writer-andrew-rule-gives-some-details-on-the-mystery-button-man-in-the-victorian-high-country-161688?fbclid=IwAR1WjxgbCVlctkaZWSZNR8VKVKFrftye2w7D03ZVgm4LxM8cvgmLtnbL47c

27/05/2020: A Day in the Life of Saint Greta (Without Petroleum Products): Is this really the future we all want? https://www.climategate.nl/2020/05/een-dag-uit-het-leven-van-planeetredstertje-greta/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=een-dag-uit-het-leven-van-planeetredstertje-greta

27/05/2020: Quote of the Week: ‘Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.’ Voltaire

26/05/2020: A Plane That Flies for 100 Years: ‘It’s not for no reason that, in 2018, the Air Force announced it would retire its 62 ’80s-vintage B-1Bs bombers and 20 newer B-2 stealth bombers by the 2030s, while retaining the the updated (1962) B-52s alongside a fleet of at least 100 new B-21 stealth bombers’: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2020/05/22/stop-calling-the-us-air-forces-b-52-bomber-old-its-more-youthful-than-a-b-2-stealth-bomber/#200a9d7cbac1

26/05/2020: Would China defeat the USA: https://www.strategypage.com/on_point/20200520115432.aspx

26/05/2020: Morrisson should cut JCU’s funding. This sort of funding (and fake science) has to stop: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/jcu-appeals-the-peter-ridd-unfair-dismissal-win-today-and-tomorrow/

26/05/2020: Better Seam Sealing: You have probably used Silnett and similar products to DIY seal the seams in your tents, tarps etc. You can mix up this mixture which is also good for increasing the waterproofness of your floors too but both these methods are fairly messy. Or you can buy some PU seam sealing tape which just irons on. Use a piece of baking paper between the tape and the iron so it doesn’t stick to your iron, and be careful not to have the temperature too high (‘Woolens’ is a good setting), be careful and patient and you will get a professional result. The tape weighs .77grams/foot or 2.5 grams per metre. I doubt whether you cold seam seal any lighter than that anyway and this will give a much neater job on a new tarp: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/25/better-seam-sealing/

26/05/2020: Snow Peak Titanium Sierra Cup: Something ultralight to make your cup of java below with. Just 39.5 grams and 322 mls (10.9 fl oz) D 4.8″ H 1.75″ May also make a useful small billy lid eg for something like this. US 19.95 May 2020 on Amazon or SnowPeak : https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/24/snow-peak-titanium-sierra-cup/

25/05/2020: Vale Hazelwood: We have gazed out our window at this lovely power station for the over thirty years we have lived here. Today they brought the chimneys down, emasculating it. It made us very sad. The moment before they fell a cloud passed in front of the chimneys mimicking when the station was in operation; then down came the chimneys one by one:

It used to be so beautiful in the early morning light from our old farm.

I have to agree with this. It was vandalism by the greens: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/05/vandalism-in-victoriastan-as-the-hazelwood-power-station-chimneys-are-blown-up.html

25/05/2020: Empire Day today (but no crackers). Who remembers?

25/05/2020: Quote of the day: ‘Those who talk of governments “following the science,” “acting on the science,” most of whom could not give a coherent account of the science of anything, are like dogs who yap because the other dogs are yapping’ Via Cafe Hayek

25/05/2020: Time our pollies caught up with Mexico’s President who has banned all new ‘renewable’ connections to the grid: ‘These wind turbines mess up the landscape, produce little energy and are owned by private companies that are subsidized for it. One of the typical scams of the neoliberals’. You betcha: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/23/mexican-president-pulls-the-plug-on-renewable-energy-one-of-the-typical-scams-of-the-neoliberals/

25/05/2020: Hard to believe Bob Dylan is 79 today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeP4FFr88SQ (At Newport 1964: introduced by Pete Seeger).

24/05/2020: Real Coffee Never Got Lighter: The Montbell 4 gram coffee dripper (US$19 May 2020):

‘Lightweight, packable, portable, washable, economical, and ecological! This convenient coffee filter utilizes a 60 micrometer mesh to let you enjoy the “true” aroma and flavor of your favorite bean in the backcountry: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/24/real-coffee-never-got-lighter/

24/05/2020: There is no Climate Emergency; the problem remains when will the Ice Age return: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/22/there-is-no-climate-emergency-2/ and Oh, what is happening to the measurement of CO2 at Mauna Lau: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/22/the-global-co2-lockdown-problem/

24/05/2020: Lenin said this: ‘The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency’ ie by ‘printing money. You remember Lenin, the communist revolutionary, the man who ‘stole’ the Russian Revolution (from the democrats) and turned Russia into a prison and a bloodbath? That is just what ‘Jobseeker’ et al are – just the delusion that any problem can be solved by printing enough money and throwing it at it, as if we did not have the lessons of the Weimar Republic, Venezuela etc as sobering reminders – but people forget if they ever knew, and advocate for ever new Green New Deals and like madness. We should be glad that the Govt has ‘saved’ $60 billion on a programme which should never have been implemented in the first place (like the lockdown itself!) and that we might all come out of this with our shirts (though I am taciturn about that still): http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/24/the-best-way-to-destroy-the-capitalist-system-is-to-debauch-the-currency/ BTW: JP Morgan are almost certainly ‘on the money’ with this analysis which shows that continuing the lockdown will not do any good at all: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8347635/Lockdowns-failed-alter-course-pandemic-JP-Morgan-study-claims.html

24/05/2020: Wonnangatta Murders (cont): Human remains are being investigated at Moondarra (between Moe and Thomson Dam). If this turns out to be Russell & Carol then ‘Button Man’ is probably not involved but likely someone who knew them – and where they would be – as I said weeks ago. However I also said weeks ago (10/5) that whoever took them from their camp site would likely dump them where they would never be found: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/missing-persons-squad-combs-bushland-in-victoria-s-high-country-20200523-p54vsi.html

Timeline: ‘March 19: Russell Hill leaves his home in Drouin with plans to visit various campsites along the Dargo River. He is seen by neighbours picking up Carol Clay from her home in Pakenham at 7.30am. Phone tracking shows the pair travelled through Heyfield and Licola to get to Wonnangatta Valley.

March 20: Mr Hill was last heard from via HF radio where he told a friend in the amateur radio community he was at Wonnangatta Station in the Victorian Alps setting up camp before dark.

March 21: Campers find Mr Hill's white Toyota Landcruiser with signs of minor fire damage, and their tent and some belongings torched near the Dry River Creek Track in the Wonnangatta Valley around 2 pm. A search begins.’ NB I got this useful piece of information from the Facebook Police page last night: ‘Their Wonnangatta campsite was located unattended on 21 March, 2020’ Most of the reports said that the car had been found six days later. If it was found when the police say then they were gone and the camp burned within twelve hours of their arriving, so it was clearly never a case of an elderly couple getting lost and this an someone else’s involvement should have been obvious to an astute observer at the very outset.

‘Local cattleman Bruce McCormack, who has assisted in many searches over the years, said the valley they were camping in was up to 1000 acres of "clear country".

"It's sort of a great open area in the middle of the Alpine National Park."

He said around one kilometre away from the campsite, the area turned into dense bushland where you would "never find them". https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/new-evidence-including-drone-linked-to-victorian-missing-persons-carol-clay-and-russell-hill/4ea2f0a8-07da-4978-8b01-d23abacecf03

Clearly they camped somewhere along the way if Russell was ‘’setting up camp before dark’ on the night of the 20th. Clearly they did not go looking for a drone that night and would not have taken (both) their phones with them if they had. We do not know whether those who found their camp saw smoke or observed smouldering, however the couple were unlikely to have gone for a walk and failed to return during the day as they would have seen the smoke known it was their camp and had it to guide them. The area where they were camped is largely in a huge area of clear country with bush beginning about a kilometer away. They would have been unlikely in the extreme to have gone for a walk in the dark in the bush at night off track or looking for a lost drone. Besides a lady of that age almost invariably carries her mobile phone (which would not work there) in her handbag which would have been left at camp for a short walk as was the phone charger. Someone who was looking for them (and knew the general area they would be in) or someone who was following them or their tracks would have spotted them at a considerable distance in daylight. We can surely add several more layers of improbability to their disappearance being natural considering this additional evidence. For example, both phones taken: 1/5?, went for a walk in daylight and failed to return to burning camp: 1/10+? Or went for a walk at night in distant bush: 1/100,000.

No. They were stalked, murdered and their bodies taken away within hours of their arriving there probably under cover of darkness. Clearly intent and someone who knew they would be there. So many false leads in the reporting of this. It cannot have helped the police and it certainly did not help me understand what was going on. The standard of journalism in Australia is abysmal. BTW: The crime scene was clearly substantially ruined by the time police arrived or they would never have been conducting a search for ‘lost’ people. There ought to have been clear evidence of another vehicle, another person.

PS: Turns out the body was another hapless ‘victim’ from Moe.

23/05/2020: Where is the work ethic in paying people more to stay at home? Jobkeeper’s $1500/fortnight and the doubling of Newstart are bizarre: https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/68-unemployed-us-workers-are-eligible-payments-are-greater-their-lost-earnings Now we ‘discover’ that Treasury is so inept at even counting the public’s money that it can make an ‘error’ of $60 billion dollars in estimates of its total cost: https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/coronavirus-australia-treasurers-excuse-for-60-billion-jobkeeper-stuff-up/news-story/ce6934584be77830072f4962197e3843 As if $750 per week ($150 in the hand per day) after tax is not a very comfortable living for doing absolutely nothing! Of course many would seek such ‘work’. Mind you, ‘Seriously? Government program costs half of what it was first thought to cost and this is a problem? The last time Labor was in government they were knocking down perfectly good school halls and setting fire to homes.’ http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/22/lets-not-overreact/

23/05/2020: Hanging prevents generational crime such as this. I cannot support the waste of public money in keeping scum like this alive in gaol whilst innocent children die due to lack of funds for medical interventions: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts/body-cameras-show-moment-brothers-joshua-and-joel-clavell-were-shot-by-police/news-story/b87dd1305a361024a5f7540ccdac45bc

23/05/2020: Wonnagatta Mystery again: ‘What has not been revealed is that Hill was in the area a week before, flying his drone near the Button-Man’s campsite.’ https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/the-button-man-could-be-key-to-mounting-mountain-mystery-20200521-p54v4p.html & https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/oddball-loner-talk-of-victorian-alps-amid-string-of-disappearances/news-story/c44a9ca93b98936a4742e0161892e39a Of course this 'Button Man' is a good enough bushman he wil have made the bodies unfindable (unlike the yokel spotlighters I speculated about). This (and his extreme vigilance and cleverness) may make him well-nigh uncatchable. PS: I also missed this piece of crucial evidence: ‘Police have not found either of their mobile phones’: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/grandmother-missing-with-man-bought-new-home-days-before-camping-trip-20200422-p54m7y.html NB. When I speculated about spotlighters accidentally shooting them I was thinking they were camped in bushland, but apparently the area is in the middle of a large cleared area so the spotlighters would have had to be particularly inept (not impossible). Surely we do come back down to someone who knew them or a (strong) lone murderer.

22/05/2020: How problematic can the awarding of a posthumous VC be? https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-20/teddy-sheean-vc-snub-battle-rages-on-after-reynolds-rebuke/12264248

22/05/2020: I’ve never understood why a bird would want to lose the ability to fly, but this one extinct for 100,000 years is back from extinction. Now that’s something: https://www.esquireme.com/content/46133-an-extinct-bird-just-evolved-itself-back-into-existence

22/05/2020: All that money, all that freedom wasted: ‘Bans played little role in suppressing the virus.

Well, “clear” is not quite the word, because the study contains a graphic which blurs this critical fact.

It plots the cases of infection in Victoria against when the State Government slapped on its bans, making you think the bans suppressed that curve.

But this graphic is highly deceptive. It tracks the infections by the date patients first noticed they were sick. In fact, it should plot those bans against when the patients were actually infected.

The federal Health Department says it can take up to 14 days between being infected and feeling sick, with a median period of five to six days.

When you adjust the graphic for that delay of five or six days, a startlingly different picture emerges.

It shows Victoria’s stage one bans were not imposed until at least a week after the peak of the virus, when daily new infections had already been cut by more than half.

The stage three bans — forcing people to stay home except for essential reasons — weren’t imposed until two weeks after peak infections. By then, new infections in Victoria had already fallen to around just 10 a day.

I’m sure the results would be the same in every state: we were already on top of this virus before the stay-home laws.

We’d already “flattened the curve” by taking the moderate steps of washing our hands, avoiding big crowds, stopping cruise ships, quarantining new arrivals and — most importantly — banning international visitors.

No one was saved by politicians then banning golf, closing beaches or chasing people out of parks. All those bans did was ruin the economy and make people miserable.’ (Andrew Bolt) Mind you Sweden’s ‘solution’ doesn’t seem to be working out all that well either: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-swedens-death-toll-becomes-worlds-highest-per-capita/news-story/1e9f4fb4fdb0b013e9ea2f10e05aaa7d

21/05/2020: The restorative power of the elk on a million acres of strip-mining: https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/dirt/2019/04/13/land-recovery-elk-wildlife-habitat-appalachia/

21/05/2020: Is the media winning its propaganda war?

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/international/articles-reports/2020/05/18/international-covid-19-tracker-update-18-may?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=website_article&utm_campaign=covid_article_8&fbclid=IwAR03-PcLBt7_GpwrZJK8MMTXSy2JijWEhTu7fq51GpzT6zuvRbvL9-e5XOo

21/05/2020: Fewer public servants + fewer busybodies = more progress: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/dithering-is-holding-back-innovation/

20/05/2020: Fun in the Mud

There was an old man who bogged a tractor.

What a quacker he bogged a tractor!

He bogged the tractor trying to rescue the truck.

How’s that for luck to bog a truck?

He bogged the truck trying to save the ute.

What an old coot, he bogged the ute……..

What a story.

To be continued… https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/20/fun-in-the-mud/

20/05/2020: Australian native finger limes: (Della) I bought one of these plants several years ago whilst indulging in a little garden-centre impulse buying. Since then I have sporadically noticed 3 or 4 of the fruit deposited at the base of the shrub during autumn and picked them up as a novelty. Today, however, I discovered that the shrub has become a little more serious about its mission and was able to carefully pick a little bowl full of the fruit.(I say "carefully" because of the vicious spines liberally sprinkled through the branches). They were perfectly ripe, and the jewelled fruit within had a sharp lime flavour. So, what to use them for? Experiment 1: G&T garnish. Result: looked impressive and a great flavour burst, but a tiny bit would have tasted better than the contents of one whole fruit. Undeterred, I used another to dollop some little flavour balls on our salmon patties at dinner time. That was really good: tiny bursts of limey flavour enhanced the fish beautifully. Apparently they only last for a few days once picked but freeze successfully for future use. Will check that out: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/20/australian-native-finger-limes/

20/05/2020: Lord alone knows what the financial cost will end up being, but it will likely be similar to the economic devastation of WW1 or 2 (perhaps both) without any benefit (perhaps not even lives saved): https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/05/peter-hitchens-furlough-billions-just-a-giant-payday-loan-in-your-name.html

20/05/2020: I say this with absolutely no sense of shame: I have disliked Jacinta Ardern from the very beginning. Putting a ‘pretty’ face on the Left does not make them good people or their policies anything but evil. They are never far away from the Gulags or the Killing Fields: https://thebfd.co.nz/2020/05/10/a-piece-of-work/?fbclid=IwAR1EZeBTHKJ2m-rUWPDDQgFp8gxQf_p2jRwxU99KnKsvtbRTvIulD5wbs1w & https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/05/kommissar-of-all-the-kiwis/ Hopefully NZ will ditch her in a couple of months!

20/05/2020: Important thoughts about innovation eg ‘a beaver and a rabbit looking up at the Hoover Dam. “No, I didn’t build it myself,” says the beaver. “But it’s based on an idea of mine.” http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/innovation-can-be-quashed/

19/05/2020: More bangs for your buck! We could sure save a lot on our health care budget – but not as much as the US! (NB Figures are US dollars. NZ’s budget is 79% of ours. I make that a saving of 20% on last year’s budget - A$81.8 billion = A$17.5 billion – remember that when the Govt starts bleating about ‘savings’.

19/05/2020: First Mickey: This mouse reminds us so much of Roman humanity and how much civilisation owes the Ancient World: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58668

19/05/2020:

18/05/2020: Good Heavens, viruses rein down on Earth by the billions-per-square-meter each day: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/16/downward-virus-flux-in-earths-atmosphere-is-over-three-billion-viruses-per-square-meter-per-day/

18/05/2020: Folks who love Vikings (and what red-blooded soul does not?) will be keeping a careful eye on this; the first Viking ship burial excavation in Norway in 100 years: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58646

18/05/2020: Steve Mosher has more evidence the Chinese deliberately created this virus: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/is-coronavirus-man-made-the-bat-virus-it-evolved-from-appears-to-be-faked/ No wonder they are trying to bully us (read: the World) into backing down on plans for an investigation. It looks more and more like this may have been a Xi plan to smash capitalism. Quite successful so far. In Australia we now have ‘More than 7 million…on the dole, pension or other benefit. Another 2 million work for government, and 6 million now get the new JobKeeper subsidy.’ (Bolt) Pretty hard on the remaining 9 million of us!

17/05/2020: Deer Hunter's Tent Goes Bush: I will not confess I broke the lockdown rule against 'camping' and took my Deer Hunter's Tent up the bush for a trial run. It is always possible at my age to have walked so far (and with this trick knee, back etc) that I could not safely make it back to my vehicle before dark: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/17/deer-hunters-tent-goes-bush/

17/05/2020: Some answers to the anti-loggers recent lies about bushfires: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/doomed-planet/2020/05/pulling-the-wood-over-our-eyes/

17/05/2020: I expect there will be a lot of this: Green New Zealand has disappointed activists, by ditching climate idealism in favour of trying to restart their economy: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/16/new-zealand-budget-ditches-climate-change-prioritises-the-economy/

17/05/2020: Wondering whether ‘the second wave’ is a myth? Hokkaido has already had one – worse than the first: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/hokkaidos-second-wave-was-bigger-than-the-first-close-those-borders/ People are too complacent. ‘It can’t happen to me’ is a delusion. Too many people were breaching the rules this weekend – even though I was up the bush by myself I saw breaches of the maximum allowable group size and 1.5 metre protocols… You can also see the second wave starting in Iran: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/second-wave-starting-in-iran/ PS: It is always possible that the second wave is a result of the increase in the number of tests. However:

14/05/2020: Thomson River Packrafting Day Trip: You can have some really wonderful single day packrafting adventures on Gippsland’s wonderful Thomson River. I promised to post this ages ago, but the summer fires and the coronavirus lock-down has meant I have not had the opportunity to go take a look – and I need to take a couple of more looks in the future, so I will be updating this.

Nevertheless yesterday on the first day restrictions were eased took a drive to check out whether they had finished clearing the Mitchell Creek Track. We would have checked out the marble Quarry Track too but they were still working nearby, so we went around to the other side and drove up the Stoney Creek Rd to see whether the T8-10 had been re-opened.

The good news is the Mitchell Creek Track has been cleared pretty much all the way to the river. The last half a kilometre of very steep going is really only suitable for $WDs (probably equipped with a winch – be warned). However you could drive along with a normal SUV as far as the drop-off pictured then walk from there. At the moment there is a deep puddle about 100 metres further back where you should probably stop.

The last 300 metres is suicidally steep.

14/05/2020: Air Pollution has been down everywhere as a result of the lock downs – as you will now from seeing posted photographs of the Himalayas etc, but CO2 levels did not fall, as increasing levels of CO2 are being produced because of the Medieval Warm Period 800 years ago (and the associated incredibly slow warming of the oceans –as the correlation of warming periods with CO2 from ice cores shows). Less than 4% of atmospheric CO2 is man-made. Reducing our output has close to zero effect (even if the percentage of CO2 was ‘a problem’ which it is not), but such reduction only comes at huge economic cost. We should desist in such efforts and straightaway begin building some new coal-fired power stations to make electricity cheaper once again and to enhance our economy: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/13/covid-19-lockdowns-significantly-impacting-global-air-quality/

14/05/2020: Teddy Roosevelt: We will probably not see his like again: https://time.com/5259995/theodore-roosevelt-portrait-conservation-hunting/

14/05/2020: What happens when you seize a tiger by the tail: ‘China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak in an “assault on international transparency’’ that cost tens of thousands of lives, according to a dossier prepared by concerned Western governments on the COVID-19 contagion.

It states that to the “endangerment of other countries” the Chinese government covered-up news of the virus by silencing or “disappearing” doctors who spoke out, destroying evidence of it in laboratories and refusing to provide live samples to international scientists who were working on a vaccine.’ https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/coronavirus/bombshell-dossier-lays-out-case-against-chinese-bat-virus-program/news-story/55add857058731c9c71c0e96ad17da60

13/05/2020: Much cheaper than the NDIS, but somehow not quite ethical: https://www.timesofisrael.com/80-years-ago-lethal-nazi-t4-center-began-euthanizing-germans-with-disabilities/

13/05/2020: The so-called ‘Pell Papers’ (the unredacted Royal Commission guff) were simply used as a further attempt to smear Pell without a scintilla of evidence when the truth is he has a long history of being a key instigator of reform of the Church’s prior parlous response to sexual abuse: https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/monica-doumit-misplaced-blame-for-horrific-abuse/

13/05/2020: Whoops! Lockdown Fail: What happens if you crossplot the “lockdown” rating of the Lower 48 states and DC with the COVID-19 infection rate? https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/12/lockdown-fail-in-one-easy-graph/

12/05/2020: No Wonder so many people are dying in the UK and USA. They are still letting millions of people fly in and out without any quarantine: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/like-sabotage-the-uk-has-locked-down-its-people-but-still-has-open-borders/ & http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/quarantine-coming-in-three-weeks-uk-advises-infected-people-overseas-to-come-to-uk-pronto/

12/05/2020: Has the Amount of Carbon Dioxide Changed Significantly Since the Beginning of the Twentieth Century? Giles Slocum Monthly Weather Review October 1955: http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/083/mwr-083-10-0225.pdf

12/05/2020: Sick to Death Of Renewables? This could be the answer – a 3D printed nuclear reactor. Get yours here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/11/3d-printed-nuclear-reactor-promises-faster-more-economical-path-to-nuclear-energy/

11/05/2020: Why there are clouds in the sky: ‘Humid air is lighter than dry air under the same temperature and pressure conditions. This is called the vapor buoyancy effect. This study discovered this effect allows cold, humid air to rise, forming clouds and thunderstorms in Earth’s tropics. Meanwhile, warm, dry air sinks in clear skies. Earth’s atmosphere then emits more energy to space than it otherwise would without vapor buoyancy.’ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/10/cold-air-rises-how-wrong-are-our-global-climate-models/ Interestingly the effect is almost identical quantitatively to the ‘greenhouse effect’ of CO2.

11/05/2020: This is important. Increase your Vitamin D dose. ‘Of 49 patients with mild symptoms of Covid-19 in three hospitals in southern Asian countries, only two had low levels of vitamin D; of 104 patients with critical or severe symptoms, only four did not have low levels of vitamin D. The more severe the symptoms, the more likely a patient was to be not just low but deficient in the vitamin.’ You can safely take 1-4,000 units per day. Probably you should take at least 2,000. We are: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/vitamin-d-deficiency-and-covid-19/

11/05/2020: Personally I am shocked by this. It is over-reaction by many police officers. They are allowed to give the woman a fine but their level of violence against her is over the top: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwyelZV9fSs&feature=emb_title

10/05/2020: Wonnangatta Mystery Continues: I suspect police will be looking for another Wonnangatta murderer. (You will remember that the original 1912 murders were never solved). Today’s ‘new’ information is that the missing man’s friends say it is most unlikely he would have walked far from his campsite. To me this is crucial: if he had been a hunter, canoeist etc it might have been otherwise. Now we have these ‘probabilities’ which can be multiplied together. Chance of he being far from his campsite: Alone 1/5? In company 1/10? – probably much less. Chance of a fire starting (in the absence of a campfire) in a temporarily deserted campsite (in the late autumn): 1/100? Chance of an experienced bushman becoming lost and never found (1/20?) Chance of two people becoming lost together and not being found (1/100?) Chance of a thorough search of the immediate vicinity turning up no sign at all 1/10? – probably more like 1/100. As I say these chances are cumulative: 1/10 x 1/100 x 1/100 x 1/10 = ie less than 1/1,000,000. Therefore, it is more than 99.99% certain someone else was involved, killed them in the tent, took the bodies away in their ute to be disposed of where they would not be found and set fire to the tent to remove DNA, fingerprints, blood-stains, etc. The person (almost certainly a man – I have seen very few women in there and never alone) was very likely familiar (at least) with the male deceased and certainly with the area – eg knew where he would camp! May not have realised the woman would be with him (his wife claims not to have known, etc), but unlikely. She may have been killed because she would otherwise have been a witness. More likely: the person knew both of them., but also is very familiar with the area and knows to dump the bodies where deer hunters etc are unlikely to find them (eg a Reference Area like Mount McAdam on the way out to Eaglevale. If their bodies were in the search area (after the first week, before the search began) wild dogs would have devoured and torn them to pieces (in the extremely unlikely event they both became lost) and scattered their clothing (relatively easily spotted from drone footage surely?) But they would also still have smelled (to a search party) out to at least 50 metres say. You figure the area searched unsuccessfully on foot in a week in that event. Missing garments collectively: socks, shoes, trousers, underpants, bra, tops, jumpers/coats, hat/s, glasses – say 20 items altogether spread out (by dingoes) over perhaps 2500 square metres - as well as their bones! ie They are not there! Police definitely need to hear from anyone who was in the Wonnangatta at the same time even if they were not involved but perhaps there for illegal purposes (eg spotlight hunting – there is also the possibility one was shot accidentally and the other to remove a witness after all). Remember the guy near Woods Point who was struck and killed by presumably spotlighters a couple of years back. Police should offer an indemnity to such folk, or a reward to anyone who knows someone who was there at that time. There is also a better than 50% chance the person was not there alone – I have been there lots of times. Few people travel there alone as I do, but (if you wonder) I have been home all this time, actually longing to go hunting/hiking in the Woonnangatta, and elsewhere – though I do not relish finding a couple of corpses: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/search-for-missing-campers-on-secret-rendezvous-continues/news-story/a09f612e46c0bc13210515ddc9ba0162

PS: Some other thoughts: I said the perpetrator almost certainly used a ‘ute’ to take the bodies away (or possibly a station wagon) indicating that it was unlikely to have been a tray – as if he were alone it would be practically impossible to load two bodies onto a tray. A station wagon would also be very difficult as it is quite a dead-lift. You could use eg a dual cab ute’s tail-gate to facilitate dragging the bodies up the incline formed when you drop it down onto the tow-bar for example, or propped against a piece of wood maybe. It would require quite a lot of strength. I know I have had to move dead sheep from the paddock, and a person would be a longer more difficult object to move than a sheep. (In the same way people who try to display their ‘hunting prowess’ by posting photos of stags on the backs of their tray vehicles obviously give themselves away as poachers in this way. You cannot drag a dead deer far, nor get it up onto the tray by yourself without throwing the winch rope over an overhanging tree – ie it was obviously shot on the road under the lights. Not much of a trophy!) It is extremely unlikely that a woman or a diminutive man could have done this. Then when ‘he’ was dumping the bodies he would have had to drag them off into the bush. This implies bush that is not too thick for walking more or less upright, and it is really unlikely you would/could drag two bodies more than 50 metres, if even that far. The police drones have not found the bodies where they are not, but they might find them where they are by searching along the (main three) tracks in and out of the Wonnangatta either on foot or using their drones - as the bodies clearly have to be dumped before you return to ‘civilisation’. If they find the bodies there might be some ballistic evidence still if they were shot – though if they were shot (clearly with a hunting round – otherwise the bullets would have passed through them and be found by police metal detectors) surely you would hack the bullets out of them where you dumped them. Either a single perpetrator (some lone, crazed opportunistic killer – so unlikely) is involved or someone who knew at least one of the victims, or spotlighters killed them – in which case there were likely two, as it is difficult to drive and hold a spotlight at the same time, and if you had to stop to take a shot you would have most likely noticed you weren’t shooting a deer! Police should be able to get one of the two spotlighters to dob the other in for a sufficient enticement. If it was someone known to them, then it would most likely be some other paramour of the woman, as the man’s wife is clearly elderly too and unlikely to be able to drag an lift the bodies etc, or someone who deeply resented his having an affair with her in any case. There should be very few suspects and the police ought to have apprehended one by now.

10/05/2020:

10/05/2020: The wave had passed a month ago, why are we still in lock-down? https://www.health.gov.au/resources/daily-number-of-reported-covid-19-cases-in-australia Here are some screen shots comparing eg Australia and Mauritius (Pop 1.25 million) one of the poorest countries, but who employed Hypoxychloroquine particularly after April 15^th. Note how they have had no new cases for a fortnight? Note also how the patients all got better all of a sudden whereas ours (untreated) are still sick.

Why are they letting people die from Covid 19 rather than using this known cure (if taken early): https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/05/many-effects-of-hydroxychloroquine-against-covid-19/ & https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/80-patients-staff-members-come-coronavirus-texas-nursing-home-hydroxychloroquine-treatment-saves-1-patient/

09/05/2020: Tyvek Solar Reflector: The wonders of Tyvek once again! This device boosts the electrical output of my solar panels by approximately X+ times (and weighs approx 28 grams). Tyvek reflectivity is just about as good as it gets: 97% eg as compared with white titanium dioxide paint at 95.5% so it is perfectly suitable for this application.

The reflector has approx 6 times the surface area of the panel, so I am hopeful I will get a significant boost. I may not get such a good result out of this prototype because the output of the panel may be amperage limited – so too the batteries I am trying to charge. If I get significant improvement I will be trying a larger version whose solar panel has two outlets, and I will move on from there: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/09/tyvek-solar-reflector/

09/05/2020: No Evidence Against Pell At All of Any Kind, ‘THE first thing to point out about the Get Pell Royal Commission’s redacted “findings” is the risible misnomer: the Commission in fact found nothing – save brass neck – to prove the leftover claims re-heated yesterday’: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/08/an-el-cheapo-consolation-prize-for-the-haters/ Do go to the link for the Searson Case

09/05/2020: Just when you thought the Holocaust was over; Pavers made from Jewish headstones found in Prague: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58564

09/05/2020: The Fine Art of Virtue Signalling, Some Classic examples: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/the_five_worst_types_of_virtuesignaling.html

08/05/2020: Kayleigh McEnany, Trump’s new Press Secretary will run rings around the media and the Dems. Eg Scroll through to the last two minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=86&v=J40RWU4_vJc&feature=emb_title

08/05/2020: Water still flowing on Mars 100,000 years ago. I wonder did those folk migrate to earth as their planet died. Perhaps we should start ‘seeding’ Venusian skies to cool in down and make it more habitable: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/07/mars-noachian-river-system-may-have-flowed-100000-years/

08/05/2020: Apparently Ferguson’s models and predictions were wrong in the first place – and the fact that he has had to resign because he constantly broke his own quarantine kind of underlines that. This is a classic example of how modelers can create economic ruin. We should stop paying attention to them: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/06/brutal-takedown-of-fergusons-model/

08/05/2020: Why it is important to recognize that Ferguson’s models were wrong. Because he got the cost/benefit of life-years saved so terribly wrong we now have a situation where we have paid fourteen times the value of those lives saved – and that is ignoring the quite obvious fact that they could have been saved by utilising the cheap cure that is readily available (ie less than $1 per life saved): https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/05/the-lockdown-strategy-called-to-account/

1. Hydroxychloroquine 200 mg twice a day for 5 days

2. Azithromycin 500 mg once a day for 5 days

3. Zinc sulfate 220 mg once a day for 5 days

07/05/2020:

07/05/2020: The Long-Predicted Death of Communism in China may be coming. Many were hoping this pandemic would spell its demise. We can only hope. However the Chinese economic collapse will hurt Australia badly due to our huge dependence on them: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/jeff-reynolds/2020/05/04/as-chinas-economy-implodes-trump-ratchets-up-the-pressure-n388003v

07/05/2020: The Magnetic Dynamo: It’s a Good Thing Earth Still Has one: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/05/mars-magnetic-dynamo-new-timeline/

05/05/2020: Bad Captain Cook: As regards my post of 02/05, I now see that SBS has found a ‘Rodney Kelly’ whose ‘grandfather’ swore Cook left a booby-trap of ‘dynamite’ on the beach 97 years before it was even invented! My wife, Della had relatives on the First Fleet (18 years later). Her adult ancestors on the First Fleet were her Great, Great, Great Grandparents with whom she shares 1/64^th of her genetic inheritance (each) with (but surprisingly no family stories have passed down from them). She does not claim any British inheritance as a result of this, nor for that matter as a result of her parents both having been full British citizens! Nor should she. Nor should so-called ‘aborigines’. We all must stand on our own two feet and make our own way in the world, sink or swim. ‘Root hog, or die’ as the saying goes. Trying to live out of other people’s pockets is economically unsustainable and downright undignified. If you really could survive here for 60,000 years (?) on your own resources you jolly well ought to still be able to!

05/05/2020: Coronavirus News: Too many important things for single posts, but if you value your life, do read them all. Interestingly world-wide almost no infections have occurred outdoors.

Vitamin D and Zinc Sulphate to prevent or cure Covid 19: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/04/vitamin-d3-and-the-chinese-virus-coronavirus/ & http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/race-to-cure-covid/

80 Patients and Staff Members Come Down with Coronavirus at Texas Nursing Home – 39 of 39 Saved by Hydroxychloroquine Treatment: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/80-patients-staff-members-come-coronavirus-texas-nursing-home-hydroxychloroquine-treatment-saves-1-patient/

The sudden drop in flu stats shows what ‘saved’ us from Covid (‘7000 in each of January and February, to about 6000 in March and to just, 262 in April’ – how many lives wwll be ‘saved’ by that?: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccrann/terry-mccrann-were-lucky-it-was-summer-here-when-coronavirus-hit/news-story/c73fb9aa973f1fb0207bdc3cfc5ab6c5

Apparently ventilators weren’t the solution. In fact they made it worse. The problem with this virus is blood clotting: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/the-stroke-virus-covid-causes-hundreds-of-microclots-throughout-the-lungs-and-everywhere-else/

Folks who (think they) are against GE please take note: Genetic Engineering Could Make a COVID-19 Vaccine in Months Rather Than Years: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/genetic-engineering-could-make-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-months-rather-than-years1/

I’ve had pneumonia a number of times so the most surprising thing I find about this is that you can have it without struggling to breathe: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/mysterious-amazingly-low-oxygen-levels-how-pulse-oximeter-gives-the-first-warning-of-coronavirus/

4/05/2020: Can you help explain the female selfie duckface phenomenon? I sure can’t – nor the weird tongue sticking out: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/05/can-you-help-explain-the-female-selfie-duckface-phenomenon.html

4/05/2020: How washed up hippies and panic wrecked the country: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/05/03/how-washed-up-hippies-and-panic-wrecked-the-country/ Let’s see how that played out in Sweden: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/coronavirus-inside-swedens-unique-and-controversial-approach-to-covid19/news-story/14ba35f9750c1219a83cd8b1b90396d4 I have also been astonished at how some poorer countries fared (better than us) with many fewer resources – but they did get a lot of Hypoxychloroquine from India early – and used it, as the high rate of recovery shows: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/mauritius/

4/05/2020: Despite the Seven Sisters being unable to sell a single drop of oil because of the Covid lockdown CO2 keeps going up – because it is (97%) not man-made. When will this wacky restriction on human progress end? Who does not want an air con and an SUV?: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/monthly.html

CO2 Hourly and Daily Values for Mauna Loa

03/05/2020: The Creek #1: We have a lovely unnamed creek here at Jeeralang Junction (I like to call it ‘Sawyer’s Gully’ after the original selectors here) which rises high in the forest valley behind and winds through the bottom of our farm. Not long after we came here nearly thirty years ago I hacked a path through the blackberries along the roadside from our front gate down to where the road crosses it. Slowly I gnawed away at the brambles and rubbish till I reached our rear boundary. Each day’s work was a revelation. There has been a lot of clearing, dam maintenance and tree planting since then. Years ago I made a 3 km loop trail through the fern gullies behind our house. Over the years it has been neglected but I recently thought I would use some of the enforced time of the the corona lock-down to re-establish it.: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/05/03/the-creek-1/

03/05/2020: Covid 19: Hydoxychloroquine really is the cure. But don’t wait until it is too late and you are hospitalized. People who have any doubt about it should read the following article ‘Pseudo-Science behind the Assault on Hydroxychloroquine’ (and thank Clive Palmer for providing Australia with over 32 million doses). NB The correct regime is Hydroxychloroquine Plue Azithromycin Plus Zinc (Sulphate): https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/02/pseudo-science-behind-the-assault-on-hydroxychloroquine/ Here are the correct dosages: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pjgHlqI-ZuKOziN3txQsN5zz62v3K043pR3DdhEmcos/edit NB: The Association of American Physicians approve this treatment: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/association-american-physicians-says-trump-touted-drug-has-90-chance-helping-covid-19 PS: Now that we have the cure I think everyone should get back to work. Any hypothetical ‘second wave’ (likely a myth anyway can be dealt with: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/05/that-second-wave-it-remains-a-phantom/

03/05/2020: Stupidity is the one incurable disease: Hiker celebrating end of coronavirus lockdown falls to her death while posing for photo: https://www.foxnews.com/world/hiker-celebrating-end-of-coronavirus-lockdown-falls-to-her-death-while-posing-for-photo?fbclid=IwAR1BpB5K4s5AsTmJfSfqz4HJfOSZVwY6X4fhIXQzDmlq3W0oLF_1bsbqzSg

03/05/2020: 27 Solid Ways to Build Your Wealth - Some pretty solid advice: https://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/saving/T037-S003-money-smart-ways-to-build-your-wealth/index.html

02/05/2020: The Purpose of Imaginative Fiction: Governrnent sponsors and prize panels seem to have ‘lost the plot’ – to use a metaphor – or is it? ‘ “What’s it about?” is usually the first question we ask when someone recommends a new book, and it’s the wrong question. What is The Old Man and the Sea about? It’s about a man who goes fishing. If you want a somewhat lengthier synopsis, it’s about a man who goes fishing, catches a large fish, then loses it to sharks on the way home. That’s all. Still, it won Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature and it remains one of the finest novels of the 20th century. If you set out to read it in order to acquire information or to inform yourself about the social issues of the day, you are wasting the opportunity the story presents... handing prestigious awards to mediocre fiction is of benefit to no-one, irrespective of the author’s identity or the social importance of the themes they write about.’ https://quillette.com/2020/04/27/the-purpose-of-imaginative-fiction/

02/05/2020: Eating meat may improve mental health - and one in three vegetarians are depressed, study claims: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8270125/Eating-meat-improves-mental-health-study-claims.html?ito=social-twitter_mailonline

02/05/2020: Captain Cook Shot My Grandfather, the true story: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/01/just-another-fabrication/ My mother made me a homosexual. If I give her the wool will she make me one too?

02/05/2020: Biden has an irreparable probem with Tara Reade especially as she dobbed him (twice) back when it happened in 1993 – unlike most of these ‘historic’ sexual offence allegations. Just can’t believe the Left’s (#MeToo) responses (Like Pelosi) to this. Obviously it is OK for lefties to screw whoever with impunity but if a Conservative should have a hint of it (think Kavanagh) s/he should be castigated mercilessly. Well ‘he’ actually – isn’t it? Eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8EjjK_8IiM&feature=emb_title

01/05/2020: Superlight Hunting Pack, 193 Grams: You don’t have to spend a fortune or carry around a tonne of bricks to secure a wonderful hunting/hiking backpack. I recently bought three of these Clever Lees 35 Litre Backpacks from Aliexpress. They cost me around US$14 each (April 2020) about twice what I would have paid had I lived in the US! As you can see from the Specs they weigh a mere 305 grams. I intended to cut one down but then add an extension collar and pad holder. After I cut it down it weighed 184 grams and after I added the 8 litre extension collar it now weighs 193 grams – not too bad for a (approx) 40 litre hiking pack. This will suit Della well and will be fine for me as a hunting day or weekend pack. Well, fine for 3-4 days surely?

01/05/2020: May Day: Time to pause and remember the hundreds of millions butchered and the billions enslaved by communism and socialism…

01/05/2020: Happy Birthday Today to Captain Tom Moore one of the last of ‘The Few’ on his hundredth birthday (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX3OeuG_coY&feature=emb_title ), and a reminder of this interesting film about aircraft designer R.J. Mitchell who created the Spitfire: https://archive.org/details/TheFirstOfTheFew

01/05/2020: Make really sure you are taking enough Vitamin D: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/05/indonesian-study-low-vitamin-d-patients-ten-times-more-likely-to-die-of-coronavirus/

01/05/2020: Virology research is fraught with danger: That time Aussie Virologists Accidentally Created an Unstoppable Mouse Pathogen: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/28/covid-19-that-time-aussie-virologists-accidentally-created-an-unstoppable-mouse-pathogen/

30/04/2020: Do You Need a Bug Net or a Tent Floor: If you have been following this blog and particularly my DIY tent/shelters etc you will realise I don’t think you do. I have slept under the stars collectively for several years of my life – more than enough for a dozens of ‘through-hikes’ which are things I would probably never do, as I dislike tracks and crowds. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/30/do-you-need-a-bug-net-or-a-tent-floor/

30/04/2020: Matt Ridley, ‘Yet creationism in government shows no sign of fading. To this day, despite the resurgence of liberal values that came after the Second World War, and especially after the Cold War, the knee-jerk assumption on the part of much of the intelligentsia is still based on planning rather than evolutionary unfolding. Though politicians are regarded as scum, government as a machine is held to be almost infallible’.

30/04/2020: Maybe you don’t remember the first ‘oil shock’ and the consequence theory of global shortages…but such shortages have been proven to be utterly nonsensical. The availability of 50 basic resources has increased by 700% since 1980! http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/04/29/contra-michael-moore-the-simon-human-abundance-index/

30/04/2020: Perhaps we have all had Covid 19 after all: https://spectator.org/mapping-the-mortality-maze-how-deadly-is-covid-19/

29/04/2020: Ultralight Ultracheap Rain Fly: Can’t make your own? How about this one? 310 grams US$30.25. You couldn’t make it for this. Of course you can’t use it as a hammock tarp as well like mine but it is the beginning of a good cheap hiking kit. You can pair it with a bathtub floor and mosquito net set-up very cheaply too, but I think you can get by with a 50 gram space blanket for a groundsheet, and they cost around $2 each (on eBay etc). https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/26/ultralight-ultracheap-rain-fly/

29/04/2020: 250 Years (Tomorrow) since Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay. 50 years ago (in 1970) even the Queen was here to celebrate this momentous event in Australia’s history; one of the greatest journeys of discovery of all time, and probably the most awesome feat of navigation and cool-headedness – yet this year, nothing. How shameful is that? The rewriters of our history have had an awful impact: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2018/06/enlightenment-virtues-australias-origins/ & https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2020/01/just-another-fabrication/

29/04/2020: Not long now…New Zealand says it has stopped community transmission of Covid-19, effectively eliminating the virus. ‘Central to New Zealand’s approach is a scientific fact that most Western leaders appear to have ignored, according to Michael Baker, a professor at the University of Otago’s Department of Public Health in Wellington who sits on the government’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group. That is that the virus usually has a mean incubation period of five to six days, twice as long as influenza, and could be as many as 14 days. “That means that when someone gets sick, if you isolate them quickly and round up their contacts, you can quarantine those people and interrupt that chain of transmission,” Professor Baker said. “With influenza you can’t really do that because by the time you’ve found their contacts it’s too late, they’ve infected other people.”’ http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/new-zealand-win-community-spread-of-coronavirus-eliminated-lockdown-eases-a-bit-tonight/

29/04/2020: Because of coronavirus there will be a halt to immigration. Thank goodness for that: 5 million more people over the last 15 years: Nearly ¾ of that under Labor. 1 in 5 people living here now is a new arrival during that period. Far too many are sponging off taxpayers. They have driven up house prices to levels that Australians cannot afford to buy a home. Our roads, schools and hospitals are overcrowded near to bursting. Huge chunks of these folk have no loyalty to Australia, or are openly opposed and hostile to everything we stand for. We must turn the tap off on immigration now, before we lose our country. A return to Labor will also, always spell a return to mass immigration (of unsuitable people). Of course, as folks have oft observed, ‘Liberals want immigrants to work but not vote, and Labor want immigrants to vote but not work.’

28/04/2020: Cheap Ultralight Bathtub Floor: I was thinking of making one of these for my new Deer Hunter’s Tent but at US$27 and a quite reasonable weight of 180 grams single ( 31 1/2″ x 7′ ie 80 x 210 cm) or 227 grams double (7′ x 4′ ie 210 x 120 cm) I might not bother. https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/26/cheap-ultralight-bathtub-floor/

28/04/2020: Can this be true – Dutch invade Germany? https://www.climategate.nl/2020/04/breaking-news-nederlandse-leger-valt-duitsland-binnen/#

28/04/2020: Spending reform before tax reform – more urgent than ever. Do we rally want to be a nation with 240,000 public servants costing $22 billion dollars (nearly $100,000 each!) while we work hard to get by on a pittance!: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/04/27/reform-reform-my-kingdom-for-reform/

28/04/2020: CovidSafe: Come on people, download the App. Let’s get this bug eliminated so we can get back on with our lives. We did it yesterday. 10 million today, please. What’s this little bit of ‘freedom’ compared with the protracted loss of freedom that this virus has already visited on us? If we don’t defeat it we may never get our lives back! I for one want to get back to hiking, hunting and long walks in the Fiordland forests.

27/04/2020: Did you know: the second plank of the Communist Manifesto is a ‘heavy progressive or graduated income tax’? As it is now nearly 100 years since this was introduced most places (as an emergency WW1 measure, isn’t it about time we abandoned it along with the rest of the outdated communist nonsense? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-15/100-years-old-still-killing-us-america-was-much-better-income-tax

27/04/2020: Even if you took the Victorian Government’s figures as a fact (ie 36,000 lives saved (Preposterous! Victoria has approximately 1/70th the population of the USA where deaths are currently at 55,000 - therefore roughly 785 lives saved for Victoria!) the cost of lives saved is somewhere between $36 and $300 million dollars per life saved. This is just insane. As I said at the beginning of this epidemic (and I included myself in it) no-one’s life is worth (on average) $100,000 nor could society afford to invest that amount of money trying to ‘save’ them. We will find we have bankrupted ourselves in a completely inappropriate response ot this ‘crisis’. There will be no money left to address future crises: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/04/26/in-the-hands-of-idiots/ PS: When you consider that the average age of death of people dying of this thing is greater than the 'normal' average age of death, the cost per 'life-year' saved (It cannot be more than 1-2 per person 'saved) is even more ridiculous.

26/04/2020:How to create moon whales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=20&v=ScBx2EwSuDo&feature=emb_title

26/04/2020:

25/04/2020: Deer Hunter’s Tent #2: A tent that is also a tarp and a hammock shelter. This tent has been evolving in my head for a number of years and I realise that some of you are impatient that you have not been able to buy one or other of its iterations. However your wait might soon be over. Be that as it may here is my latest and I believe best version of it: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/25/deer-hunters-tent-2/

25/04/2020: Two reasons I may never visit Machu Picchu:

24/04/2020: Leftie environmentalists cannot be appeased. First they wanted the 'waste' land where we conducted mining, timber harvesting, fishing, grazing, hunting etc for their 'National' & 'Marine" parks so they could waste it further with their wildfires and runaway vermin & weeds. Then they decided that artificially created 'farm' land was also unsuitable for coal seam gas mining, wind farms, hydro projects and ad nauseum & infinitum. Don’t wait around: they will want your house (and your wife, car, chimney, cat, dog, family – anything the vandals can lay their hands on)! Wake up Australia: these people are just economic (& social) wreckers; they are the biggest pest species in the country and urgently need to be eliminated. Please help to do so at the ballot box when you get a chance.

23/04/2020: How did a European woman get herself to New Zealand (to die) over 300 years ago: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/written-in-blood/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Great_reads_written_in_blood&fbclid=IwAR0ecyJgpsDDq2Udz8IfQlN-UBkwD0kCXayUS6z3PvF4kH-ZLwJP5WYpmSg

23/04/2020: Te Araroa: The Longest (NZ) Walk. When the crisis is over you might spend a few months less enjoyably than this: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-longest-walk/

23/04/2020: Recipes for recovery: Less government; not more: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/04/viv-forbes-with-uncommon-common-sense-on-rebuilding-our-economy.html & http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/04/23/a-covid-19-economic-recovery-program/

22/04/2020: The Loneliness Epidemic: a predictable result of a couple of society’s silliest experiments, the break-downs of marriage and the family: https://www.city-journal.org/decline-of-family-loneliness-epidemic but there is no justification for government filling the gap which ought to have been filled by a spouse or children. Enjoy the fruits of your own bad choices. Suck eggs folks. I do not want to pay.

22/04/2020: Last year there were over 900 influenza linked deaths in Australia. The flu season struck down 310,000 Australians, ‘While 2019 saw the highest number of influenza cases across the country, 2017 still holds the record for the highest number of flu-related deaths, with over 1,100 cases.’ http://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/04/20/frauds-and-conmen/

22/04/2020: The Left’s Michael Moore begins to understand what a disaster ‘renewables’ are: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/21/earthday-epic-michael-moores-new-film-trashes-planet-saving-renewable-energy-full-movie-here/

21/04/2020: The most entertaining way to get some sense of Chinese C19th history: ‘Flashman and the Dragon’. Of course, this is historical fiction but Fraser tried to make it feel realistic. Sir Harry, I feel, was the original James Bond. From Amazon: ‘Lusting after a clergyman’s wife, smuggling opium to Hong Kong, coupling with an Amazonian woman river pirate, groveling before a ruthless warlord, and becoming the sexual plaything of the most beautiful and evil woman in the world, Sir Harry Flashman, the supreme antihero of the Victorian era, is ready to rise to the occasion to matter what depths of dishonor he must plumb. In this uninhibited and uproarious adventure, Flashman is once again at his irascible best’. https://www.amazon.com/Flashman-Dragon-George-MacDonald-Fraser/dp/0452261910 One of the most interesting things I learned from the book (probably the best way to learn C19th history) is that the guy in charge of the Taiping Rebellion was also called Mao (a coincidence?). So he did not invent the butchery; he murdered in a 'proud tradition'. Until WW1 this conflict was the deadliest in all history, killing millions and depopulating whole provinces there.

21/04/2020: It was always the sun, stupid: ‘The implications of increasing Total Solar Irradiance during the global warming of the last two decades of the 20th century are that solar forcing of climate change may be a significantly larger factor than represented in the CMIP5 general circulation climate models.” (Scafetta and Willson 2014)’: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/20/ipcc-politics-and-solar-variability/

21/04/2020: The kind of science we definitely don’t need. The California estimate of infection rates 50 times higher than thought to be the case was a fake (obviously done by climate scientists bored with lockdown!) The ‘evidence’ of people contracting the vurus multiple times also needs to be taken with a grain of salt. This is a problem with testing, not a new evolutionary strategy for diseases. Vaccines against every other sort of disease have worked for a century or more. This one will too, when we get it – later this year probably. Of course older folks like us will be first in line (after medical workers) – because we are more likely to die from the virus. Suck eggs. Then we will be off hiking again in New Zealand (I hope): http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/californian-antibody-test-finds-only-1-5-of-self-selecting-group-in-highest-risk-county-actually-had-coronavirus/

21/04/2020: An C18th .50 calibre air rifle which could punch 30 rounds through a target over 100 yards away: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/20/merewether-lewiss-air-rifle/

20/04/2020: Willis is always a good read. Some chloroquine reflections here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/11/of-quinine-and-chloroquine/ Why can we still not get our hands on this stuff so we can stop worrying about the virus?

20/04/2020: Such Nice People: Earth Day Founder Dies in Prison After Composting Girlfriend: https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/04/earth-day-founder-dies-prison-after-composting-daniel-greenfield/ It’s a pity more Greens cannot finish this way – as they deserve!

20/04/2020: The husband/wife store, a good laugh; stick with it to the end: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=148&v=GTzzBzo_P20&feature=emb_title

19/04/2020: Vale Westie, a Real Fiordland Legend: You have probably seen my posts about Westies Hut and about that section of the South Coast Track. We have stayed in the remarkable hut in a sea cave at Price’s harbour – and hope to do so again, next time for a slightly longer period, despite the sandflies. I doubt we will be staying for 8 years though, as Owen West its eponymous ‘creator’ who has recently died did. Though the hut was begun by Southland fisherman ‘Slack’ Dawson much of the final construction was done by Westie and more recently much work has been done by Cliff and Ann McDermott of Invercargill and others.

Once the lockdown ends and we can go to NZ again we will be heading for the South Coast Track again or the Dusky, moose hunting.

Some Westie’s Hut eye candy:

https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/19/vale-westie-a-real-fiordland-legend/

19/04/2020: Memories of the iron lung: https://www.newsweek.com/how-does-iron-lung-work-polio-survivor-last-us-1083104

19/04/2020: The World Cannot Be Fixed; like the Mississippi ‘It Just keeps Rollin’ Along.’ Tinkering scarce ever works. Still, the most astonishing thing about this whole artificially created virus is what China did (after first making it then ‘accidentally’ releasing it). They locked down Hubei Province so they didn’t get it, at the same time as deliberately exporting it to the world – and back when this was obvious to me (around Xmas time) our governments kept saying, ‘Oh No, it would be racist (or some other bullshit) to cut off travel to China even though they were clearly intent on exporting a deadly plague. We must not now allow them to benefit further from their perfidy. The ‘Buy Australian’ campaign and calls to restart manufacturing (or self-sufficency as we once called it) are not lunatic ideas. And (as an addendum) we should definitely cancel that completely unaffordable submarine contract before the farce of delivering the first outdated diesel sub from it in 2032 and the last in 2050 bankrupts us and makes us indefensible https://www.davidwarrenonline.com/2020/04/16/the-world-cannot-be-fixed/ Great! This Chicom virus was man-made: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/the-first-synthetic-pandemic-man-who-discovered-hiv-says-coronavirus-is-man-made-ccp-destroyed-the-evidence/

18/04/2020: A Folding Plastic Kayak at around US$300 and 13 kg. Just great if you are short of storage space: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/18/tucktek-folding-kayak/

18/04/2020: I have held up better than Johnny Cash. At age 71, (though I could never sing as well).: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=440&v=FqESx05OuCA&feature=emb_title

18/04/2020: Earth Two: Scientists have discovered (at least) one – and it’s only 300 light years away. Time to get moving on that ‘Warp Drive’. All my life I have thought that mankind was on the brink of breaking away from the limitations of a single planet. It may still happen in my lifetime. It certainly will happen in my children’s – if only because death will likely have been banished then too! https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/17/kepler-1649c-earth-size-habitable-zone-planet-hides-in-plain-sight/

18/04/2020: We have nothing to blame but meliorism. ‘Something must be done’ the people cried. Those in government entrusted with protecting us (from ourselves) should have known better than to give in to our childish demands. The mysterious (invisible hand of) market forces could be trusted to provide us with all the wonderful largesses (and freedoms) that we have hitherto enjoyed - but not if a weensy ‘crisis’ should come along, a bad dose of the sniffles. Man flu no less. Then we should exhort governments to throw away all the gains of decades. We will be regretting this for some time. And the meliorists will clamor for more to be done. Oh God! Why can’t people grow up? Be adults and shift for themselves. Long before any government had done anything, while they were still urging that nothing needed to be done yet flooding the country with diseased Chinese refugees from Wuhan, Della and I were protecting ourselves. We withdrew our money from the stock market against the day (mid March) when it would be advisable to start re-investing (at a healthy profit). We had retreated into the protection of our beloved small Jeeralang Junction farm, planted out the veggie garden, made sure we had fuel to run generators, purchased enough meths and Velvet soap, made our own face masks, purchased what drugs we would need (this was back in late January/early February before the government knew what drugs we would need - they still don't. There will be a trial, they say!) and settled down to wait it out. Such epidemics pass. They can’t jump out and grab you if you take adequate precautions. There was nothing the government needed to do. As it turned out pretty much everything it did do was too late or too unnecessary. Now we have an economic mess, and we will have one for a year or two – unless the government does something! Then it will be worse. Roosevelt's new Deal protracted the Great Depression there for at least a further seven years whilst in Australia (where we did nothing) it had passed in a year! Please, let them not do anything this time. The market will sort this out if the government steps back, sacks a lot of public servants (who could never be afforded anyway) and lets wages (and other things ) fall until the correction has done its work – and we are prosperous again!

17/04/2020: I wonder how many (extra) deaths we would have had if we had done nothing except urge people to up their hygiene and their social distancing while it was about? It seems to peak quickly and fall away even in places where this was pretty much all they could do. Some countries (eg Taiwan and South Korea have kept the death toll extremely low without curtailing economic activity). I know down the track people are going to be very angry about the damage to economies. Governments will need to hope that they are also grateful enough about a handful of stranger’s lives saved without being really outraged about the implications to their beliefs in democracy and freedom. As usual Roger Kimball is worth a read: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/04/roger-kimball-coronavirus-new-york/ This Israeli study shows that the virus peak shows exactly the same pattern whether governments do nothing of go full-on; so what was that all about then?: https://townhall.com/columnists/marinamedvin/2020/04/15/israeli-professor-shows-virus-follows-fixed-pattern-n2566915

17/04/2020: Out of the Ice: As the Little Ice Age slowly ends (as it has now been doing for around two centuries – what some chose to call ‘anthropocentric global warming’) interesting artifacts pop up for archaeologists to investigate. Unsurprisingly many are in Northern Europe (like this one) but there remain oodles of Viking artifacts to discover across the top of the Americas, coastal Russia and Siberia: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58379

17/04/2020: Malcolm Turdbull’s memoirs coming out next week are certainly one reason to celebrate book shops being shut. What a vile piece of work he was/is. I doubt even the Labor Party could produce a worse (Oh I forgot: Shorten, Gillard, Albanese…). Why hasn’t he been expelled from the Liberal Party? He seems to have forgotten that he failed to throw his hat in the ring when the spill was called – or why it was called. Apparently it was OK for him to oust Abbott because a handful of opinion polls were poor, but when his own performance was far worse, his position was apparently sacrosanct. Hopefully this is the last we hear of him. I suspect the book will soon be cheaper than toilet paper, so you might look out for a copy if your hoarded supplies are running short during the lockdown!

16/04/2020: The Cold, Hard Truth About Icing Your Injuries: It doesn't help muscles heal—and it might actually do damage: https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a29710918/icing-sore-muscles/

16/04/2020: ‘Nobody knows what the future holds’. If you ever doubted this axiom, the current world situation ought to have disabused you…but strangely more people than ever are relying on snake-oil salesmen and the like prognosticators. Have a read of the late great Michael Crichton’s take on this wonderful topic: https://www.docdroid.net/4wgVecr/why-speculate-michael-crichton-pdf#page=2

16/04/2020: The WHO are Chicom stooges. (BTW: Chicom – Chinese Communist Party) We would not have the awful (economic and human) mess the world has if they had done their job. Tedros ought to be lynched actually. I mean last week he even re-approved the Chinese wet markets reopening! Trump is right to de-fund them until they mend their ways. Here’s Topher’s take on them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=304&v=2JFS0Q2USfI&feature=emb_title It is very likely after all that Covid 19 came from a Chinese Laboratory. As I have said before they do not sell bats in the wet market in Wuhan – anyway this bat virus came from bats which live 600 miles from there: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/14/did-chicom-19-come-from-a-red-chinese-lab/ Who is behind the suppression of the immense success rates of the various Hyroxylchloroquine treatments (especially those involving zinc as well as the antibiotic)? A case mortality rate lower than .5% in elderly patients sure beats the observed death rate in so many countries of over 10%! https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/14/dr-faucis-own-career-making-medical-research-had-no-clinical-control-group-used-historic-controls-coronavirus/

15/04/2020: How to X-Ray a dinosaur: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58355

15/04/2020: Imagine a private citizen just being able to buy our entire air force. Truth is stranger than fiction: https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/04/australian-government-sells-46-fully-armed-fa-18-fighter-jets-to-a-private-citizen-in-the-us.html

15/04/2020: Never Forget: The virus is still out there: Results in from Austria show that reported cases represent about one quarter of total cases there (We may have done much better), but still only a tiny percentage of the population have had it (yet) or been exposed to it. 99% of the population remains vulnerable. The (bad) cold Della and I both had was very unlikely to have been ‘it’. The fact that so far only 6 cases have occurred in the whole of Gippsland (all foreign travelers) bears this out. We don’t want to get it either. The fatality rate looks more like 1%, so ten times worse than seasonal flu, so it will have to be managed carefully for a long while. Strict rules about hygiene practices will need to be in place for such a long time they will become second-nature (the new normal), but still we could never maintain a lockdown until we had vaccinated the entire population (1-2 years) so we will have to slowly let up and deal with the consequences. Even so we face a recession the like of which we have not seen since World War 2. Life will never be the same again! http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/finally-coronavirus-random-tests-show-only-1-infected-herd-immunity-is-tiny/ Although this study seems to contradict the above: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/report-30-50-patients-chicago-tested-covid-19-already-antibodies-system/ Some doubts also about a German study: http://joannenova.com.au/2020/04/german-15-herd-immunity-study-wasnt-random-and-may-have-tested-for-the-common-cold/ Unsurprisingly the same Health dept honchos, WHO (& etc) who inflicted this thing on the world still have no idea of the case-fatality rate, so that we are no better at being able to judge whether a million people are going to die of it or 100 million. Great! https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/14/what-is-the-chinese-virus-case-fatality-rate-coronavirus/

14/04/2020: The new Deer Hunter's Tent. Just about finished. See post: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/11/miniature-whelen-hammock-tent/

14/04/2020: What explains these different coronavirus death rates? On today’s figures (deaths/cases): Italy:19899/156363 = 12.7%; Spain: 17209/166831 = 10.3%; UK: 10612/82160 = 12.9%, France: 14393/132591 = 10.8%; Germany: 3022/127854 = 2.3%; USA: 22115/560433 = 3.9%, Australia: 61/6351 = (<1%) ie .96% ? All the news is about how badly the USA is doing – but how about the UK? Oz is performing brilliantly. Well done Scott! NB World: 114257/1853505 = 6.1%. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

14/04/2020: Lassie Come Home: What a beautiful, poignant movie it is, especially for all of us who love dogs. We watched it again last night (after an absence of decades). Movie makers really have lost the art of telling (such) a good story. Too often today’s drivel has nothing morally uplifting about it. They are almost always a tribute to shallowness, sexual misconduct and violence – as if that was all that was important in life. Nobility and fidelity are such wonderful virtues. How long is it since you saw a film which showcased truly important human (and animal) attributes? You can get it from Pirate Bay safely using Utorrent and a VPN.

14/04/2020: A near-perfect Roman legionary canteen. Such a mundane object but also so little changed in two millennia. So much thought and planning went into its creation. Not suitable for ultralight hiking perhaps: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/58325

14/04/2020: 21 million Chinese died of coronavirus – US intelligence officials intercept data. (Had to be more than 3,000 anyway). If this is anything like true governments needed to be hurrying to deal with the problem much earlier. Apart from the deaths the most frightening thing about it is the level of control that cell phone use creates/mandates. I expect in the future it will be revealed how authoritues here too tracked (and hopefully eliminated) the virus using mobile phone data: https://web.archive.org/web/20200406190917/https://n5ti.com/health/1233/

13/04/2020: South Coast Track: Two ‘I wish’(s) this morning in my facebook memories. This one from 2015: ‘The next hiking adventure begins! Heading off today to conquer the South Coast Track of New Zealand for 6 days with only our backpacks and stamina. Stay tuned for pics and reports when we return to civilization. (NB this pic is an old one of Steve and I attempting to conquer the south coast track in Tasmania (same name, different island!) a few years ago; now we are older and wiser, ...will that help??? :) ) The weather forecast is not particularly auspicious, with a reasonable dose of rain expected, but what are raincoats for?! Wish us luck! http://www.doc.govt.nz/…/things-t…/tracks/south-coast-track/’ and this one from 2016: ‘South Coast Track, Fiordland, NZ: Finally finding time to go through the pix. Internet availability being what it is in wilderness areas, I missed the chances to post pix on a daily basis, so I will do a daily selection now we are home to mirror the days on the track.
Day one was totally passive, involving a jet boat ride over the beautiful Lake Hauroko and then helter-skelter down the fast-running Wairaurahiri River to the sea. There we stayed overnight in lovely wilderness accommodation and prepared our packs for the big walk ahead.’ Catch up with them here: South Coast Track, Fiordland, NZ: Finally finding time to go through the pix. Internet availability being what it is in wilderness areas, I missed the chances to post pix on a daily basis, so I will do a daily selection now we are home to mirror the days on the track.’ Catch up with them here: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2016/04/25/south-coast-track-fiordland-nz-dellas-version/

13/04/2020: Wild Dogs in the Wonnangatta: I agree with Andrew Rule that sooner or later the lost campers would have been eaten by wild dogs: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-rule/andrew-rule-missing-high-country-campers-revive-centuryold-tragedy/news-story/22c177ddb2f89cfe558e8e87e621715e I have been hunted by packs of them in there myself – and would never camp in the Victorian mountains without a gun! They were much worse before last year’s fires which seemed to have thinned them down a but. I expect to encounter several packs of them in there every trip, like this one back in 2013 with my old dog Tiny: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2013/09/29/hunting-the-wonnangatta-moroka/ More about Tiny here: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2018/02/23/a-tiny-life/ For many weeks this was my most popular post. People love dogs. I know I do. But not wild dogs.

13/04/2020: Self-pity ought not lead to victimhood and dependence on public charity. It is one thing to bemoan, ‘Pauvre moi!’ and quite another to expect society/others to do something about it. The best solution is, ‘Can do’, the motto of the US marines. To ‘Carpe Diem’. Seize the day. To take yourself firmly by your own bootlaces and pull yourself up. This obscene government largesse we see all around us will lead to exactly the opposite. First it will cause a protracted recession (or worse) and to calls for the government to do even more. Do you recall when the Weimar Republic printed so much money that you had to take a wheelbarrow full of the stuff to purchase a loaf of bread – and folks had to be paid several times a day so quickly was the value of money falling? Pleas for government assistance are always heading us straight for such dire outcomes, because it is all a fantasy. The government does not create any wealth (though it may print money). At its best it may redistribute some of the wealth that others create to the lame the halt and the indigent, but in so doing it always devalues the wealth that others created and deprives everyone of necessary precursor freedoms. At the moment I am spending quite a large part of every day trying to ‘catch a falling knife’ on the stock market as we try to rescue our life savings from the inexorable pit of inflation which the government has unleashed upon us with all this fiat money. I have never before experienced such swings. The value of many shares can and does vary during the course of the day by more than +10% to -10%. Sometimes 20%. If you have scrimped and saved all your life (most of it in farming) to in the end have to entrust your savings to shares in our greatest enterprises it is terrifying to see their values being gambled up and down in such a reckless fashion. Of course one has to have everything set to conditional buys and sells lest in the twinkling of an eye you lose everything you have worked and saved a lifetime to gain – and be thrust in the evening of our lives to some beggarly state dependent on government charity. It is a very tense time. The young who have never experienced want, and who are unfamiliar with the notion that you have to work hard or create your own value will find themselves in difficult economic circumstances. Many will be unemployed for a protracted period. Many others have long since used the cheap money that government has already created to indebt themselves obscenely yet will see the value of their properties crash to a fraction of what they owe. Many will become angry and cast around everywhere for someone to blame and for ever more fantastical solutions. These are dire times. The virus is the least of our problems. It should probably have been left to continue its course without engendering this wholesale economic destruction. https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/04/when-panic-is-mistaken-for-policy/ & https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/04/well-pay-in-pain-when-the-bill-comes-due/ I did not come to these conclusions overnight. Here’s what I said about this issue back in 2017: ‘‘Any means-tested welfare payment provides an incentive to be poor’. Nick Cater. Just repeat this over and over to yourself until you get it:. Our Governments waste most of our money. Mostly they waste it on bludgers whom we would not give the time of day to, let alone a helping hand. A helping boot up the arse, maybe! And they throw the money at these wastrels without expecting a sou in return! Wickedly poor investment strategy. Disastrous moral policy. Government should be about ensuring that people become their best selves, not reinforce folks in being their worst selves. If you keep on rewarding bad behaviour, which is what almost all ‘welfare’ is, you will be repaid with plenty more of it. Apart from our money being thrown away on welfare per se (35% of the Budget!), most of the remainder also goes to ‘service’ these same folks; other big ticket items include: Public transport (2%), Justice (?%), Education (8%), Health (16%), the Public Service (6%), public Media ($2 billion!), Recreation (seriously, 1%) Housing 2% Interest 5% (and rising!) Some of these items are even more (mis) represented in State Government Budgets (particularly, Justice, Education, Public Transport. Less than 5% is spent on Defence or other worthwhile projects. Over two thirds is spent on welfare with no meaningful return, not even gratitude. This is charity gone mad! We need to decrease spending and taxes!’

12/04/2020: Trump’s Miracle Drug: French Study of 1,000+ Patients Including Seniors See 98% Success Rate with Hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin Regimen. Let’s buy/make lots of them, then get back to work! https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/trumps-miracle-drug-french-study-1000-patients-including-seniors-see-98-success-rate-hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin-regimen/

12/04/2020: I am spending my Easter lock down making a new Whelen tent. Stay tuned here: https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/11/miniature-whelen-hammock-tent/

12/04/2020: Remember this: in 1920 polio stalked the streets of New York and elsewhere (killing 6,000 there that year alone, and crippling many more) and year after year for 30-50 years it came back without provoking an economic dislocation however nasty the death toll, the iron lungs and the calipers were. (The calipers incidentally, for those who tragically still need them, are astonishingly still not free in Australia, where so many things are!): https://www.globalcitizen.org/fr/content/polio-new-york-disease-pakistan-afghanistan/

12/04/2020: We have to end the lockdown as soon as practically possible. Living in a socialist police state is not a desirable situation, nor is the coming economic catastrophe likely to be a result of it. The large numbers of (young) people defying/breaking the lockdown make the situation even worse ie all pain, no gain. Bjorn Lomborg: ‘Economists are now suggesting the costs of continued extreme policies could be comparable to Germany in the 1920s or the US in the 1930s, with massive economic costs, a third of the workforce unemployed and a generational loss of opportunities... This middle